Thank you! :-)
I have one more thing that has been going through my mind a lot: my dad is also quite obviously gifted, and I suppose that he has had issues at school and with his own path. I know that he was very difficult to motivate to go to school as an early teenager (maybe even before) and barely got his high school diploma. He studied French and pedagogy and went on to become a teacher. He definitely has some passion for his job, puts some love and creativity into projects for his pupils and sometimes talks about theoretical concepts in pedagogy. However, I have alwa ys felt some kind of unease in him, and he definitely does not look very happy when I ask him about how he chose this path. Perhaps even more importantly, I sense a lot of cynicism that I know from myself in him - retracting into yourself when you feel like you don't belong anywhere, shutting up and keeping your ideas and opinions to yourself, being somehow awkward when you communicate. A lot of things that, as I feel, go away or become less when you start embracing who you are, and have enough opportunities/environments for satisfying your endless curiosity and need for stimulation.
However, I do not know how to approach the subject with him. I wish I could share more about some insights I have had in my life so far, but I am afraid of hurting him by confrontation with things that - most likely unwillfuly - he kept buried to himself for a very long time.
If any of you has experience with this kind of situation, I'll happily listen to stories or advice.
[Of course, I might also be a fool for trying to judge the book by its cover, and he might feel very fulfilled.]