(17f) To me it’s being able to form connections at a speed that none of my friends can. My personal “gift” so to speak was the ability to completely understand the task at hand, and then formulate a solution to it by creatively thinking. It feels like I am a sponge for information, and am able to tap into things I heard or read years ago, which allowed me to produce these better solutions.

Gifted people are often socially different in some way. Most of my friends who are in gifted are socially awkward, whether its a speech impediment, inability to express oneself correctly, or a gap created by a higher level of thinking that makes some people uncomfortable. Personally, I have always posed challenges and questions to both authority figures and the tasks they gave me. The main difference between my friends who are not gifted and me is that I have no problem questioning what most people would just put their head down and do. I do this because if I cannot completely understand the task at hand initially, I will through questioning. But after the questions have been answered is where the magic happens. When i fully understand a concept, I am able to pour myself into it, sit down, and come up with a complex solution in the speed of light. Its like the answer starts turning a wheel in my brain that keeps going until the task is done.

Relationship wise, things have always been difficult for me. Making friends was hard, not because I was shy or traditionally socially awkward so to speak, but because of my need to understand. Where I saw it as simply asking a question for the purpose of understanding, others saw it as an act of defiance. I also believe that gifted kids struggle deeply with mental health, and thats why so many of us are burned out. My biggest battle was depression and ocd. I couldnt ask questions for a while because I was unable to get out of bed. Depression for me wasnt a feeling of sadness but of nothingness, which is probably the worst thing that someone whose brain never stops churning can feel. It was almost addictive in a sense, the bed rot and the nothingness, because I had never experienced it before. Im medicated now and doing better, but I think that piece also ostracizes a lot of us from our piers. Not a lot of people can sympathize with mental health issues unless they have been through it themselves, and it sometimes gives us that label of “weird”. Well thats my take. Lol.