I’m reminded of when I was in college in Model U.N., there was one guy in the group who presented very socially awkward (his posture made him look like a question mark in profile, he was kind of physically awkward, didn’t participate in the social activities of the club). My senior year, I was the secretary-general¹ of the club. We’d finally let him chair a committee at our annual conference that we held for Southern California high school students. I was walking from committee room to committee room during the conference checking on how things were going and when I looked in on his committee—well, he was totally rocking it. I realized we had squandered his talents for four years because of surface appearances.

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1. The pretentious way that Model U.N. clubs name what’s effectively the president.