SOPHIA
Apart from the speaker's ums and uhs, the room is so silent that the sound of mother snapping her pencil in half vibrates around the room and we are intelligent enough to surmise that this man will soon be Factionless.
It is not required for Erudite's leader to be a panel member, but this initiate overreached himself. He chose the same topic of expertise mother happened to be the expert of, so it is only logical that she would sit as one of his panel members when he defended his research. Poor, deluded, fool. I think he believed his confidence, self-assured speaking would suffice, but mother and the other panel members could easily sniff out the fillers and the fluff in his content. Here in Erudite, charisma and charm are misleading and mean next to nothing.
I've read the history books, and I have seen human nature destroy themselves because of these trivial pursuits. Hundreds of years ago, I would have been shunned for being a female who preferred the academics – especially the sciences, which they've gendered off as a male pursuit – and would have instead been pressured to follow the societal norm of staying home to raise offspring. Even women like my mother, despite her high intelligence quotient and major accomplishments in science and politics, would be shunned simply because she did not opt a submissive role to the man who impregnated her.
That will not happen, not in Erudite, where the only thing that does matter is pursuing great levels of intelligence and using it to better the world. Not many people understand will understand that. Especially Abnegation, and time and time again I hear them talk about our thirst for knowledge as a mere vanity project and quest for greed. They do not understand, which is why, next year, the odds of me choosing Abnegation is at a strong hundred percent.
I know I am Erudite. I know it. I have yet to take the Aptitude Test, but I do strongly believe ignorance must be eradicated for peace. Everyone looks at me and says I will be the next faction leader years from now. Not because of the foolish way countries centuries ago handed leadership based on bloodlines, but because, like my mother, I show great intelligence from an early age. I, Sophia Matthews, am pure, true, Erudite.