I would agree with MOT, and say that many of the HG+ individuals I know are in both categories at some point. Professionally, OTOH, I have encountered a number of children and especially adolescents who are more conscious of the differences than of the commonalities. Developmentally, adolescence heightens the sense of difference and the need for belonging for most people, and I think this accentuates that natural process. My response generally has been to acknowledge the differences--note that everyone actually has differences, many of them invisible--and then to try to connect them to the evidences of shared humanity.
I have been inexpressibly blessed myself to have had an upbringing that balanced practical acknowledgment of one's statistical difference with foundational valuation of every human being as equivalent in humanity and essence. This balance found its key manifestation in the idea of interdependence and complementary giftings: in my faith tradition and others, articulated as, e.g., "to whom much is given, of them much is required", and "blessed to be a blessing".
This does not mean that those moments of out-of-stepness don't occur, just that they are firmly contextualized in the broader tapestry of human diversity and interconnectedness.
pw1, I believe that those who continue to seek will continue to move toward internal freedom. Your childhood has left marks, yes, but also clearly you have transformed many of them into a deep thoughtfulness and intentionality. You continue to grow and develop. Good for you!
