KaitiBeard,

While you've had a difficult past with needs that weren't met, your past does not have to define you unless you let it. Holding on to anger will get you nowhere. This may seem impossible to you at the moment, but at 25 you do truly hold your future in your own hands. I went through not exactly the same thing at around the same age... but was feeling very frustrated with my life and wishing things had been different in my past, and the single best thing I did for myself then was to see a counselor. The counselor helped me come up with a strategy to focus on finding out who I was and learning how to put the past where it belonged - in the past.

This may also fly a bit against the typical feeling here too.. but fwiw, as the parent of kids who have had their high abilities recognized during their childhood - no matter how tough it might be not to have had your intellectual strengths met in school, IQ alone won't carry anyone through life. It's our values, ability to preservere, empathy and compassion for others, that carry us through life as successful, happy human beings (please note - that's not an all-inclusive list... just a few examples!) I suspect you have what it takes to find happiness in your own life - and you're blessed to have a child to share it with too....

Wishing you the best in your future,

polarbear

ps - fwiw, ita with aeh:

Originally Posted by aeh
IDK your parents, and can't speak to their motivations, but as a parent yourself, I'm sure you know that most of us are doing the best we can with what we have and know. We'll get it wrong a lot of the time, and pray that our children will be gracious enough to forgive us, or at least be able to let it go, and move on from it.

As adults, we make our own choices with the lives and life history we've been given up to that point. I think understanding and listening to your own DC, to give her a better experience than you had, would be a good place to start. (BTW, you will need many of the same types of skills that you would have needed to be successful in all three of the professions you named, in this endeavor!)