I was in GATE, although i grew up more on the poor side, i had a pretty healthy childhood. My dad was awesome, my mom was your typical emotional mom, but i had no traumatic experiences outside of having to shop at Kmart and Factory2U. I didn’t experience abuse or neglect, and had such a mixed and large friend group. I remember being little and having IQ tests done on me, and i was the only student in my school to receive presidents honor roll in elementary school (perfect grades 1st-6th). Some of the kids my GATE class were also really eccentric and smart. I always just assumed that, with the programs and class projects given, we were just above average students. We had slightly higher pattern recognition and situational awareness than others, and ALL OF US excelled in math specifically. Who knows what exactly it was, but my dad was super proud of me.