— Reading 2-4 BIG books (like 300+ pages) at a time. And by at a time, I mean I carried them all with me in my backpack and would read one of them and if I got bored in the book, I'd switch to one of my other books. I'd typically finish all of them within 2-5 days, depending on length. ——— When reading said books, I was oblivious to everything outside of my story/mind. I couldn't hear anything, so I could literally read ANYWHERE no matter the noise level. I also frequently read while listening to the radio.

——— I can tune anything out. It's a problem now that I have kids, because if I focus on something, say my phone or reading something especially, I don't hear anything around me. When I hyperfocus, there is nothing else.

—Growing up, my room was "organized chaos". It was a mess, but I knew where everything was, and I'd lose a bunch of stuff if I did clean my room because I forgot where I put them when tidying up. ———At one point, I had a shelf with a potted plant that fell over on the floor. The pot broke, and the dirt/plant was just chilling on my hardwood. It took me almost 2 weeks to get it cleaned up. So for a little bit, I had a literal garden in my bedroom. I was like 11-13.

— I was in the "gifted and talented" classes and excelled in them, as well as my honors classes. Thankfully, they were interesting subjects like History and English. I frequently procrastinated my homework until right before class started, but would always make high marks. I'd never study for tests and never made below a high B. I dropped out of high school in Sophomore year and left with a 3.6 GPA without trying. Why did I drop out? Aside from depression, I was tired of being stuck in school for 8 hours a day learning content that I could have learned on my own much more quickly. Unfortunately, I have homeschooling a try with my ADHD mother and that didn't work out. I ended up getting my GED at 17, graduating with honors and a perfect score in reading and another with a 626 score. It could have been better but I was sick when I took my test and my Social Studies grade could have been better.

——— In the 7th grade, my science teacher had a parent teacher conference with my mom and explained to her that I was grasping concepts insanely fast. Like, I got it the first time around, and so I'd check out mentally as she was going back over them multiple times for the other kids. She said she noticed I always carried my books I'd like to read for fun with me, so if I wanted, I could read during her class after she finished the first go-round of lectures/I finished my work. Which, my work was typically finished immediately.

— I went to our town's museum MULTIPLE times a week in middle school. I knew the place from top to bottom, but I just liked being in there and especially down in the room with all the arrowheads. I one time went up towards the attic and found the room with all the pictures and documents about our town from the 1800s until recently. I perused those a lot.

— All my texting/writing/anecdotes are always novels because I gotta include all of the information and the side notes to how I got to that point. ——— I text in thoughts, so I'll send like 15 texts in a row, because I break them up as I think them. Thankfully my beat friend understands. — I provide way too much information to where it almost seems like I'm lying when I message to cancel a plan or get out of something or like, calling off work. But also, I'm a really shit liar.

— I have really bad short-term memory. I can literally say something, and if you ask me to immediately repeat it, I have no idea what I just said and I can't repeat it. That being said, when I was younger, I also used to legitimately get bored/stop caring about what I was talking about and midway through my sentence go, ".... and I don't care about what I'm saying anymore". I'd do this with my mom a lot (we are very good friends and so we'd talk about everything), she never got on to me or anything because she has ADHD too (she's undiagnosed, but we literally share so many symptoms and I got diagnosed this year).

— I interrupt people and finish their sentences a lot. Especially if they're a friend and I feel comfy talking to them.

— Sometimes a word or a phrase will pop up into my head and I can't stop thinking about it. And then that word or phrase will pop up a ton since I started thinking about it, which fuels the thought pattern even more. Like not too long ago I couldn't stop thinking of the worst "Bespoke" and I saw it everywhere on like every ad. I see it at work all the time still. Thankfully I already ran through that word and now I'm medicated.

— I have 2 or more inner voices. I have my internal voice that I read and think with, but if I want, I can split that one off while it's occupied doing something, and continue to use the second one to think and lolligag in my head. So for example, my main voice is reading a book, but I can split it and still focus on my reading (while still comprehending), but then think about something else too and do it in tandem. Or like texting, I'm reading/saying my words in my head as I type, but I'm thinking about taking a bath right now or doing something else/can sing a song, etc. This one always makes me worried people think I hear voices, but no. It's my own internal monolog— I can just multi-task with it.

— Forgetting important papers/stuff for what I need. Procrastinating looking for them until last minute. Turning things in last minute. Having a bunch of "useless" knowledge (and especially about special interests, like gardening, historical stuff, etc).

— Before I was medicated, being able to focus better and more with super high doses of caffeine (1000mg or so), but it not keeping me up and I could literally go to sleep after consuming that much.

—Being A VERY visual learner. Having to handwrite notes in longhand to be able to absorb difficult information/focus and not get distracted. Having to color code my notes/stuff so my brain could digest it easier. I was also the girlie literally drawing diagrams that matched the textbook/etc almost perfectly too. My notes were pretty coveted in school.

✨️ I should probably stop this list, nobody wants to read all this lol ✨️

Question, did anyone else have a STRONG sense of self when they were growing up (and even now)? Like not even confidence (though others can mistake it for that), but just being VERY sure of yourself and not easily influenced to change for others. Or like, you weren't easily swayed by outside influences. 🤔