I was in the disabilities program, but now I write endless, long reports, so this one hits a bit close to home.
More than one way to the top I guess...
Adult who was in talented and gifted and then burned out is the nerdy "I coulda went pro but i tore my acl"
Thanks to crippling undiagnosed ADHD (inattentive) plus insomnia, depression, and Oppositional Defiant Disorder*, I was in both the gifted and disabilities groups during my public school days.
Which lead to weird mental whiplash like being given an aptitude test battery and scoring post-college level on almost everything with a reported IQ three points short of genius (which is how you know that test is bullshit, ha), except the reason I was given said test was because I was on the verge of flunking out of high school due to being incapable of doing any work.
I'd have killed for the ability to simply focus and get things done. Intelligence is nothing without a matching work ethic, or whatever you want to call a functional dopamine system.
* Mini-rant: I'm half-convinced this so-called "ODD" was solely the result of a lack of sleep. I remember nearly passing out every day at school, and the main symptom I display when tired is a lack of patience for everything when I'm normally the most laid-back person imaginable. The instant I started college I became a perfect 4.0 student, and the only major difference from before was that I got to start the day at a sane hour.
I wasn't in the gifted and talented program, I was the president! My sophomore year my friends packed the club whose only requirement was being in an honors or AP class and elected me president. Sadly, my only gift was a really good memory which kept me towards the top of my class through high school but was no help in college. I barely passed the AP calculus test and it really screwed me over. It took me 7 months to learn a quarter's worth of college calculus and starting in calc II with a 10 week schedule was not confidence inspiring. Barely passing that class first try only set me further back until I hit my absolute limit with differential equations. I straight up changed majors after improving from an F to a D on a retake of the class. I spent 5 years in college and left 6 units short of my degree. I entered the workforce as a glorified secretary where I stayed for 25 years. I finally cracked $100k in that last year but I quit because I hated the job and was not earning the money they were paying me. I moved back in with my parents at 43. Having only ever contributed the bare minimum to receive the company match, even with no rent I still blew through my retirement savings over 3 years of unemployment and then started work at a government call center at 40% of my ending pay at my last job. 3 years later I barely make $50k, someone I got hired with just made manager and I never even applied for a senior role. Even if I was once considered gifted, being lazy trumped any advantage that could've granted.
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