The brilliant Albert Einstein once said, “If you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.”

In other words, if you are unfairly judged in life, it can do a real number of your self-esteem and your confidence.

But hopefully we can push past that kind of criticism and prove the naysayers wrong, no matter what we’re doing.

Here are some true stories about this from AskReddit users.

1. Not an artist.

“I needed a “performance art” class for my degree. I took drawing. I made many mistakes and etiquette errors. Did you know you’re not supposed to talk to the nude models? I didn’t. It’s also really frowned upon to request specific positions because you find drawing foreshortening quite challenging.

Oh, also, I suck at drawing as it it turns out. The prof wanted to give me a D!! We had a chat. I told him I should be graded like I was a psych major with no talent whatsoever who did develop a number of technical improvements over the semester. I got an A-. He said I should have taken debate instead, because I clearly had a talent for that.”

2. That is frustrating.

“I currently work at my local McDonald’s (I’m 16), and since I live in Quebec, it’s a French establishment. French is my third language, but I’m still constantly treated like I’m stupid when I don’t completely understand. The worst part is, I’m very eloquent in my 1st and 2nd language (Bulgarian and English).

Public speaking and writing are my passions. But nobody at work thinks I could possibly be intelligent because I’m being judged on my fluency in my third language. Never mind the fact that speaking three languages when you’re in high school is more than any of them can do. Shit is frustrating.”

3. That’s pretty ridiculous.

“Was contacted by a recruiter and pitched a job opening that fit my description perfectly (as recruiters do). I pushed back and asked to see the exact listing, so I could verify. I questioned a bit on the requirements that stated specific programming knowledge, and was ensured multiple times that, while it was on there, it wasn’t the primary job function and they don’t need a programmer.

So, booked the interview. Showed up, said hellos, and was thrown at a terminal and asked to write a pile of custom code for something. Had to politely explain that I was assured multiple times by the recruiter that this wasn’t a programming position, and was told to ‘just give it a shot anyway since you’re already here’.

Like, you’re looking for a programmer and you’re so hard up that you’d waste your time interviewing someone who’s just told you that they don’t program at all? One of the interviewers was their lead programmer, and she was extremely petulant toward me for ‘wasting their time’. It was quite the experience.”

4. Didn’t go over too well.

“In high school I was really good at debate and aced all my government classes.

However, I had to take a pottery class for an art credit. I sucked. Hard core. My vase looked like some bees had taken crack before they built their hive. The teacher legitimately thought I was special needs. Two years later I was working retail to help put myself through college- I ran into the teacher one day. “It is so awesome you have a job! Good for you!” I felt like Kevin Malone being patronized by Holly Flax.

My mother loves to tell this story to her friends.”

5. Bad teacher.

“Had an English teacher that said any stories I wrote were bad. I thought that I’d done a good job on it, so I showed it to a different English teacher who said it was brilliant but I needed to spell check it.

Turns out the first teacher basically didn’t read it, just saw the spelling errors. Several years later I got diagnosed with dyslexia.”

6. That’s the culprit.

“I was always told how bad sleeping in class was despite acing my classes, and teachers would complain to my parents about how much I slept.

I felt so horrible for so long and slept early almost everyday to no avail. Turns out I have narcolepsy.”

7. It’s physically impossible…

“Playing sports growing up I would make these comically bad errors. The ball would hit me directly in the face or I would swing at a pitch waayyyyy too late. Everyone gave me shit even the coaches and parents. I kept playing because I enjoyed being active and around my friends, but I never understood why no matter how much I practiced I struggled with basic things that everyone else could do without thinking.

I go to the eye doctor as an adult, and he tells me that I have a condition in one of my eyes that means I don’t have binocular vision and as a result have very poor depth perception. It’s physically impossible for me to track a moving object in space like everyone else.”

8. I don’t know what you’re talking about.

“When HR at a company had me interview for a different position than I had applied for.

The position they interviewed me for was one I knew nothing about, and told them as much. Despite me telling them before each round of interviews that they had made a mistake, I still had to endure a full day of people asking me questions that I had no answer to.”

9. Time to walk out.

“Maybe for some it won’t be a situation like the Einstein-quote, but I felt like a fish trying to climb a tree.

A few months ago I got the chance for an interview for an okay-job. I finished all tests with almost 100% and finished the first two interviews quite good and when I got to the last one they started asking me questions that had nothing to do with my profession. I was completely silent because it has nothing to do with what I studied. I think that I even looked like a fish gasping for water. After they started to make fun of me, I just walked out.”

10. Now I’m the smart one.

“When I worked on farms I was a simple farm hand, no one thought much of me because I was the bottom of the totem pole and one day a sheep was having trouble giving birth to her babies, no matter which way the vet and my boss turned her or helped her she couldn’t give birth.

However, the night before I watched a program on the TV where a woman had the exact same issue during her labour and they stood her up and she gave birth easily. So I helped the sheep to get as vertical as possible and the birth just happened in a snap and it was easy for her. No one questioned me after that and I was seen as the smartest of the farm hands.”

11. Judged yourself.

“I mostly judged myself.

My whole life I pressured myself to be just as smart as my dad and brother who were phenomenal in math and engineering. My dad has an IQ of 138 and my brother always had A’s and made the Dean’s list in post secondary. The institution gave out entire cakes to those on the Dean’s list.

I struggled so hard in math. I tried so so hard, exponentially more than any other kid because I felt like if I didn’t get good at math, or any subject for that matter, then I wasn’t smart. Always a C+ B- student. Because I wasn’t good at something, I very much lived years feeling I was stupid.

Then as I grew older I realized that my skills in art were actually worth something. My art teachers were always very impressed. Soon it progressed to people making me offers. The school’s police officer even had me make him something. I had some artwork displayed at the city’s airport. And when I expressed to my dad that I felt like there were no jobs for me on my degree, he said to try something else. I asked what and he said “art” which I thought was a little funny for the “starving artist” stereotype. In that moment, it felt like he equated my artistic skills to his intelligence and success.”

12. That figures…

“When I was in the Navy I used to get in fairly frequent trouble for the suggestions I made for improving operational efficiencies.

As an outside contractor they were quite happy to pay me $200 an hour to say the exact same thing.”

13. That’s great!

“I was teased a lot in middle school/early high school for loving hockey. Would constantly get my knowledge tested, my appearance would get brought into it (why would a fat girl like hockey), had someone ask me if it was my passion and laugh in my face when I said yes.

Joke’s on them, I’m an officially credentialed journalist by the NHL now and have personally spoken to more players than they could dream of buying autographs from.”

14. Sounds dumb to me.

“Not me, but my brother.

When he was in elementary school, when grades are based on things other than test scores, the teacher noted on his report card that he needs to work on his skill at cutting with scissors.”

Those stories are a bummer, but just remember that you’re not alone. We’ve all been unfairly judged by people at one point or another in our lives.

Do you remember when this happened to you?

Share your story with us in the comments.

The post People Share the Times They Were Unfairly Judged appeared first on UberFacts.