Bart

Took a Simpsons personality quiz and got Bart. The description: Very misunderstood, most people just dismiss you as trouble. Little do they know you’re wise and well accomplished beyond your years. Felt like the quiz was reading my mail.

There’s something specific about being pegged as the troublemaker when you’re actually thinking. Bart’s the kid everyone sees as chaos and prank calls and skateboarding away from school, and they stop looking right there. They never land on the part where he’s genuinely smarter than the adults, where he actually gives a shit when it matters. He just doesn’t perform sincerity the way they need him to.

I’ve been underestimated by enough people who saw the surface action and decided that was the whole story. They see the disruption and assume there’s nothing underneath it. Bart doesn’t care. He knows what he’s capable of. He’s not going to perform for people who’ve already made up their minds.

The quiz said I’d be remembered for starring in my own TV show and saving the town from a comet. Generous. But the philosophy stuck: I don’t know why I did it, I don’t know why I enjoyed it, and I don’t know why I’ll do it again. That’s the honest answer. That’s what you say when you’ve stopped justifying your instincts to people who won’t get it anyway.

Getting Bart wasn’t a surprise. It was more like confirmation.