I was born a genius, literally. When I was two years old, I could count to ten, speak fluently and play the piano. When I was four, I made the headlines because of my impressive IQ test score of 142. However, being intelligent did not spare me from being a troublemaking lad.

I had recently turned sixteen. I went to the fridge to grab a glass of fruit juice. Suddenly, my ears caught the sound of an annoying hum. Where did it come from? I opened the windows and peeked outside. I could not spot the origin of the sound. Then, I realised that the subtle buzzing came from the refrigerator. 'Do you hear that mother?' I asked. She was busy leafing through a magazine. 'No, honey' she replied.

During the following days, my mind worked frantically in order to figure out the problem. It drove me crazy. Consequently, I did the most logical thing. I decided to tear the entire refrigerator apart when my parents were away. I dismantled every element of the appliance bit by bit, after disconnecting it from electricity. After three hours, I successfully figured out what was causing the buzzing noise. I knew I wasn't imagining it! The problem came from a small electronic component that was broken. I held it up in triumph.

My mother upon her return, barged into the kitchen, her face red with anger. She ordered me to put the fridge back together. 'Don't worry mother' i said confidently, pointing at my refrigerator manual 'If there is something I excel at, it's following instructions!'. However, after 4 hours, I came to the realisation that I had no idea how to put it back together. I dreaded having to announce my father my failure to repair the refrigerator. When I did, his eyes turned wild with fury. 'I have never been so disappointed in you' he scolded, banging the door shut. These are words that he had never told me before, and this hit me in the gut. Tears drizzled down my cheeks.

It cost $1000 to repair the fridge. This was a huge expense to my family and represented a large fraction of my parent's salary. It was my fault so I decided to do something about it. I declared the next day that I would pay back every penny of the $1000. This is how I learned about the world of work, the hard way. Being sixteen years old, my best option would be to work as a postman. I had underestimated how hard it would be. I had to wake up early, collect the letters and deliver them before going to school. After one week of exhausting work, I went to pick up payment, expecting to be generously rewarded for my hard work. I was disheartened when I got only a fraction than I expected. It took me a whole year to repay my debt. But this effort was nothing compared to my parents' forgiveness.