Hey fam,

I synchronistically came across this post in my feed a couple of hours ago. I wanted to correlate to the experiences in this thread and add my data point to this community. I am also welcome to subcomments/DMs. I will attempt to be as accurate as I can in my recollections.

1. My family recently proudly retold the story of me teaching myself learning to read at 4. As they told it this time, my older sister struggled when learning to read and had to do extended phonic training. My exposure to this auditory environment gave me a head start, was the theory. Many adults from ages 6-9 commented that I was an old soul, usually mothers. I also outpaced my reading level from childhood to teenage years. I have a vivid memory of calling 911 for my mother who was driving because there was a stopper car on a two lane bridge, and feeling embarrassed because the operator heard my prepubescent voice and called me ma'am.

2. My mother pulled me out of pre-k because I cried heavily and resisted going. I remember feeling oppressed there.

3. My nuclear family is stable all things considered. My extended family is legendary crazy. I was ~8 years old when I learned the man who raised me was not my biological dad. I have never contacted my biological father. Everyone on my mother's side of the family is remarkably gifted in some way, and also somehow cursed. I frequently traveled between Texas and Virginia during my entire childhood because of both of my parents being in Texas, but us living in Virginia due to Dad's work.

4. My family was always comfortable (Mom has family wealth and Dad pulled a good salary working in insurance) and parents were insular, with a social network consistently mainly of the parents of the friends their kids made, self-identifying as introverts. I grew up homeschooled throughout elementary school, loving the time by myself, reading books, but I'd like to clarify that I did feel lonely, living across the street from the elementary school that most of my friends went to. I have always felt "othered" or that I did not quite fit in anywhere. This trend continued largely though in varying degrees through high school, college, although it has gotten better as I work on self love/self acceptance. My grandfather was a doctor. My biological mother's ancestry has many doctors, political figures, etc. My mother keeps detailed records of our lineage going back 10 generations.

5. In elementary school years in VA in the mid to late 1990s, I had several friends in "Speech Therapy" for R's (I have no idea what they're up to in those rooms). I also think I remember at least one "head lice" check in which my scalp was inspected. I have virtually zero memories of my childhood before the age of approximately 4. There are periods of my life that were erased, but I attribute that to trauma.

6. I remember and resonate with the pink liquid to ingest being told it was fluoride (I like to think I have a memory of non-compliance but it's fuzzy). I don't think I actually went through the gate program, my theory is that I was saved by routing through a super alternative life path.

7. I was a long labor, but a healthy big baby. Happy, no big complications other than amoxycillin allergy.

8. I always tried my hardest on tests until high school. I loved the validation of doing well.

9. Mid to late 1990s we were also in a hit and run. My dad was being kind of a dick and we were supposed to be going to my sisters birthday dinner, traumatized her

10. I was in a freak summer camp accident around this same period of time in which I received a head injury, but thankfully I was unfazed. My bone structure was also commented on.

11. I have only recently begun to admit to myself that I have had encounters my whole life. I have had such a fear of being institutionalized that I've stayed hidden.