I'm very lazy and test well, mostly, and have only won a few meaningless contests. Two drawing ones, a "What the Flag Means to Me" contest in first grade, and once had a fourth grade piece published in a magazine. Nothing that would impress anyone very much. :S
Wow! Lina!
This brought back memories for me; I used to say that I 'test smarter than I am.'
It turns out not to be true. I just
am was very lazy, and had no idea what would impress anyone. Again, I think that biggest problem for Gifties is lack of reference. I pretty much judged myself against the characters I read about in books! This is not a realistic way to get reference.
I also have to face that I'm very hard working when I care about something. It's taken many years of 'getting more mature' to just plain force myself to do stuff that doesn't interest me. I did well at school by becoming a champion at 'spinning' an assignment so that I could find a way to care about it, and that was wonderful, but it always left me feeling 'not quite as smart' as the kids who could just 'sit down and grind it out.'
I think that the key challenge for my son at this stage of life (12, 8th grade)is to find a dream that will motivate him to work hard even when it is hard.
When I was little, I just 'cranked open my ears' during school and let all the things my teachers wanted me to learn just 'float in.' It was fun and easy.
In highschool, I was so happy to make friends with the kids who 'got my jokes' and took the hardest classes, but I thought I was dumb because:
a) I couldn't make myself work as hard as they did. A low 'a' was as good as an A++ to me.
b) I couldn't just 'crank open my ears' and do all my learning in class anymore - so I figured that if I had to study, that meant I was dumb.
c) Several of the kids did outscore me on various tests.
You can see by how I was thinking that if I had said stuff like that aloud on a forum like this, I would have found out that it's quite possible to be very, very, very smart and still not perfect in every way. I also yearned to break out of my 'circle of Nerds' and be friends with every one.
I guess the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence. I really thought that if I could hone my social skills until I could be liked by anyone and everyone, then I would really have achieved something wonderful. So I did, and it is wonderful - BUT - I have to face that even though I can make myself likable to 'anyone' - I can't make myself deeply enjoy the company of 'anyone.' I'm not saying that all my friends are acaedemically gifted, although most of them are, but that all my friends are really really special in various ways.
As you can see, I have a fair amount of that 'Intensity' that folks say Gifties have. Now I'm all tired out.
Good Night,
Grinity
