I remember liking school and feeling like I was good in it until about the 2nd grade. During that year, the teacher used to have us watch TV and I thought it was boring so I would play a dictionary game with my seatmate. We would get in trouble for this. By 3rd grade my mom says the teacher was telling her I lacked initiative.
In my senior year of high school, I was shocked when my Business Law teacher asked me if I was interested in applying for a scholarship - I was a C student. My dad went to school only through the 8th grade. He did not think girls needed to be educated. My mom was a secretary most of her life. My family life was a mess and none of my 5 brothers or sisters has gone to college – 2 did not graduate from high school. I changed high schools 4 times. My best high school friend who I had not seen in 20 years wondered (at our high school reunion) how I ended up going to law school - you weren't even a good student she said.
I started working in a law firm in San Francisco when I was 17 and after working in the legal field for 7 years, I decided to go to college. I started at a junior college and eventually graduated from UC Berkeley when I was almost 31. A few years later, when my DS now 8 was one and a half, I graduated from law school. I have never been tested for any gifted program but I think I am likely optimally gifted (even though I never fit in at school). I have never been particularly good at standarized tests - my LSAT score was good enough to get me into law school in Nevada. I was very proud at my 20 year high school reunion to be able to tell my Business Law teacher what I needed a little more time than normal to accomplish.
