To the kind person who called me talented...An open letter to a whole lot of people,

Thank you, but it's not just you. It's not just one person. It's more than that because I clawed my way up here. Because I sacrificed a lot of opportunities. Because I prioritized something to arrive at the point where you and others see me as "talented," and when you say "what I meant by talented is you worked hard to get there," it's frustrating... because it makes me no different from the prodigy who suffered through a whole DIFFERENT set of difficulties to arrive at a similar location. When you call me "talented," you risk lumping two very different types of people together, looking at only their end products, and dismissing both of their journeys by acting as if they traveled the same path. And maybe I'm trying to be too politically correct here, but I'm not the only person who dislikes this. I know others who just don't know how to turn down a compliment that highlights "talent."

Please read the definitions.

http://dictionary.reference.com