Though there are some people on this board who came from poverty and were able to get educated over time, most people on this board come from pretty priveledged backgrounds and cannot relate to your values or reasons for your angst.
I do want to apologize if I am one of the ones who is making you feel crushed. I struggle between being honest with what my personal beliefs and definitions are and being kind to someone who is young and who may have, for all we know, incorrect measures for her.
For what its worth, I do not come from privilege although I cannot claim to come from poverty either just somewhere in between. I have been living on my own since I was 16 and moved out of my parents' home, though, and did put myself through college. I do understand feeling alienated and misunderstood and I do have to admit that having the understanding of myself as gifted once I realized that was what was going on with my children has been healing for me. I would not want to deny someone else the same and my definition of gifted may be as incorrect as the next person's.
No, no, no! You've been one of the most helpful; you keep answering my neurotic questions! I appreciate it tons, believe me.
I definitely want you to be honest. I think I just have to remember that giftedness is measured/defined differently by different people, and the best thing I can do is just trust the psych and do what makes me happy without caring what other people think of me or my abilities, regardless of how hard that might be.
Wow. It sounds like you've achieved a lot and been through a lot; good for you!
I think the understanding that hit me when I opened the psych's report has absolutely made a difference in my life similar to yours. It made me feel so good to just sit there and read over it. It made me feel like I wasn't weird or a freak; I had proof of my abilities. When I started researching giftedness, I realized there were a lot of people like me, and although when I'm around my book-hating parents I tend to feel very alone and an alien, I'm not really an alien at all.
I think it's the confirmation, the validation, actually having that "g" word on an official psych report. It made me feel loads better, about everything.
