It has been many years since I last saw my old high school friend Rebekah, and while I had always appreciated that she was smart, given that she was on the school’s top debating team with me, and was better at it than me (as was the other girl on the team, which frequently left me with the paranoid suspicion that perhaps I was only there as the token male), she had always managed to be smart in a quiet and unassuming way.
Then she went off to uni, got her law degree, and got a job, and I didn’t see her for a number of years.
Today I ran into her in the lead up too James’ wedding, and in the evening watched her do a crossword as part of a group. Now almost the entirety of the group had university degrees, but Rebekah was leading the pack, and you could almost see the cogs of her mind flying around, and I was left with the inescapable impression of being in the presence of something of an intellectual giant.