I Grew Up Gifted, but My Life Didn’t Turn Out the Way I Expected
Part of the issue here is defining what it means to “achieve”.  I was a gifted child and graduated at the top of my fancy Ivy League university.  Did I go on to conquer the world?  No.  And many days I stress and feel bad about that.  But that’s mostly when I allow myself to judge myself by the external validation system of society.  Society values a big bank account or fancy awards which is fine.  A happy life spent with family, spent learning and pondering lots of different things rather than focused specialization, spent achieving enough to live well but not make the Forbes rich list or a Nobel prize are considered external failures to live up to potential.  But it is a happy life and in the end that is all that matters.  It isn’t easy to tune that out and be thankful for what you have but it is vital to my sanity.<p>I have children now who are very smart and capable.  If they want to conquer the world that’s great.  But what I really try to reinforce is that they should find a life that makes them happy and try to ignore the sentiment that they MUST be a Supreme Court justice or a unicorn CEO if that isn’t what their soul tells them.