Some classmates seem instantly good because of a head start you never saw. A head start isn’t the same as talent.

Somebody who appears to arrive already good usually had years of something you never saw: a parent in the field, lessons from the age of six, a house full of the right equipment. None of that is visible in a classroom, so it gets read as talent, and you end up comparing your week two against their year nine. The gap is real. Its cause is not what it looks like.

When somebody is far ahead, ask how long they have done it and what they started with. Then measure yourself against where you were a month ago.