I'm glad I'm of average intelligence, that's why I'm still alive

Since the Ramadan Feast, there is a piece of news that keeps popping up in front of me.

I was annoyed when I first heard it, but I didn't dwell on it much, dismissing it as a social media accident.

It has happened to many people.

A message about methods for enhancing sexual performance was sent to a research-oriented WhatsApp group I am a member of, coming from an elderly colleague.

We laughed it off.

It was noticed hours later, but it didn't cause a problem.

It became a subject of banter, that's all.

We gave our colleague a brief tutorial so it wouldn't happen again.

But when the requested sentence for the Ramadan Feast message glitch turned out to be five years and three months, we said, "This is going too far."

Then I decided to take a look at the resume of the friend who had this incident happen to him.

He got into Boğaziçi Mechanical Engineering in 1984.

Meaning he ranked in the top 100 or 200.

A total genius, a brain evolved through special design.

On top of that, a master's degree from Bilkent.

In the end, the expected happened.

What happens to every living creature happened to him too.

He hit the wall.

While writing this, I remembered the days when I prayed, "Thank goodness I'm of average intelligence, thank goodness I ranked in the top 20,000 instead of the top 1,000."

The days when the Decree Laws (KHK) were announced, when I said, "Oh God, thank you."

When the country was in turmoil after July 15, I thought about a course I took while doing my PhD.

There were 3 of us taking this course.

It was in English.

The instructor of the course had studied in America and was a very competent professor.

While one of my friends was constantly initiating academic debates and challenging the professor, I was trying to understand the subject, concentrating on the matter just enough to get a passing grade on the exam.

The other one, unfortunately, couldn't understand anything, staring blankly at the board and trying to copy what the professor wrote into his notebook.

He was going to try to pass the course by memorizing.

He had no other choice.

But his IQ was so low that it was difficult for him to pass even by memorizing.

It was clear that he had made it this far with espionage support, such as stealing questions.

The professor, seeing that this blockhead wouldn't be able to pass, made the exams take-home, and he passed along with us.

The kid who knew both English and German and even corrected the professor's theorems passed with an A, the one with limited intelligence with a C, and I, being of average intelligence, passed the course with a B.

Years later, there was a coup attempt, and these two kids were dismissed from their professions by Decree Laws. The stupid one even went to prison.

Later, they said he became a confessor or something.

The smart one was dismissed over the "signature" issue, and the other for FETÖ membership.

I did quite a lot of work.

Projects, books, publications.

I became a professor.

But because the system collapsed, I left the public sector of my own volition.