The Kintsugi School for the Gifted and Talented

Doesn't help that gifted support organizations often seem to fall down the hole of getting more and more about "look at Little Timmy's amazing academic achievements, aren't gifted kids so impressive, watch him do a trick" over time, instead of about... support. The best thing I got out of the one I was in was a group of online friends acquired through a message board the people in charge aggressively did not care about. The organization is run by one-percenters'-one-percenters' so out of touch with most of the members that one of the only official events at their alumni reunion was a $60-a-goddamn-plate lunch in the fanciest place I have ever been in my life, for a bunch of 20-year-olds. There were alums in town for the reunion who had been homeless. Needless to say, they didn't get a huge turnout to that lunch.

 

(@LadyNighteyes side note that i....am aware of that whole thing, i was on a mibbit board with you guys ages ago and am silently lurking in that skype group chat at all times, im the one thats close friends with @blue ftr :PPP)

 

(@rats : I am aware that you are aware, it was a general further airing of grievances. :::PPP )

 

Yep, my dad's an alum too and that's exactly why he told us the nets were up when we went to visit! I didn't know it was the highest successful rate in the US though.

HOLY FUCK COULD I HAVE USED ACTUAL SUPPORT. Not just like my organizational problems and social issues which put me into depression in fucking elementary school but even just like, a curriculum that actually challenged enough to learn what to do with failure? Because high school was not the time to learn that, let me tell you.

 

I broke hard and the school I failed out of....basically seems to pretend like I never existed. It's surreal

 

Gods, yeah. I went to one, and the main purpose seemed to be letting parents meet up and complain about how the school system wasn't pushing their children hard enough.

And like. We did learn cool things there - we did activities, and sometimes that was fun stuff like learning nursery rhymes in Hebrew or playing with circuits - and I did make a few friends, because I'm sure like 90% of the kids there were brainweird in some way. But that was a side-effect, and I really wish the point of the organisation had been more about supporting the kids instead of letting parents complain about how 'difficult' everything is when you have ~gifted kids~.

 

I went to an alternative school for about two years and literally everyone there was brainweird and it was the best

 

but then the other thing was that the school had no tests or anything and I never had to study to scrape by and it prepared me for nothing
also somehow all the brainweird people's schedules like...synced up? like the bipolar people would be manic and depressive at the same times and all the depressed people would have depressive episodes at the same times and the anxious kids would have anxiety attacks all on the same day and it was
weird

 

it was kind of the worst
especially because I would wake up and feel like shit and just be like "oh no. oh god. it's going to be a terrible day" and then I'd get to school and all the other depressed kids would just be moping around drinking tea
or we'd all have anxiety attacks on the same day and the teachers would kind of just be like "well fuck"
and it was not fun times
and I was never able to help my friends or anything bc I was so wrapped up in my own brainweird problems and it was just
not good

 

Did anyone else never really learn how to study? I pretty much didn't have to study in high school in order to get acceptable grades on stuff, and when I did need to study it was like *stare at notes for ten minutes* "Wow, I sure feel prepared!" and it has left me hopelessly unprepared for college.

 

THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS

 

I never learned to study, scraped my way through high school after almost bombing ninth grade, and now I don't know what to do

 

*high five* I'm at the halfway point in my sophomore year and I still don't have a fucking clue. I should really investigate my school's disability center but that would...require having a diagnosis...

 

....I should investigate my school's disability center but that would require...going....and....talking to people....two things I hate doing...and two things that make me incredibly anxious....so that's not gonna happen...
is there any way for you to get a diagnosis?

 

Not until law school.

 

@chaoticArbiter eventually? I have diagnosed depression and GAD, but nothing the disability center can help me with. I'm Seebs-diagnosed as "probably autistic" and have hella executive dysfunction problems, and I've been partly trying to find a specialist and partly being deathly afraid of the process for the past couple of years.

Honestly this makes me feel better because it means you had good enough grades to get into law school in the first place :P

 

aaaaah, I getcha.
I have diagnosed ADHD, so yeah, that's what would get me help. if I...had the guts to go...

 

@chaoticArbiter hugs if you want them, this shit is scary.

 

hugs are v welcome
it is scary
lots of things are scary rn