But a Jape

“As you can see, we’re the same age, with the same job title, and the same salary. Something’s definitely gone wrong here.”

– Green Sweater Guy

Full disclosure, I was one of those “gifted children” myself growing up – got into accelerated education programs, AP classes, scholarships, etc. – and yeah, I’m sure I’ve developed some particular psychological hang-ups as a direct result of that background.

But for some reason, something irks me when I see “gifted” kids online attributing their depression/anxiety/loneliness/what-have-you to the fact that they were “gifted”. Because the kinds of neuroses they’re expressing – anxiety about their place in the world, dissatisfaction with their life trajectory, not living up to internal or external expectations – don’t seem especially unique to “gifted” upbringings; they seem like things everybody’s been going through, especially in more recent times.

So what I end up gleaning from these “adult gifted children,” is an underlying subtext of, “Yeah, but the normies are supposed to feel bad about themselves! I’M supposed to feel special!”

– James