Does anyone think they're gifted?

I used to think I was gifted. I had a college reading level in the 6th grade, managed to get 90's in classes even after missing 80+ days of school, etc. When I got to college, however, I realized I was just surrounded by idiots my entire life.

All those original ideas/thoughts I had that I assumed nobody else thought of... well I learned I wasn't the only one. Especially after finding this website, I realized i'm not even 1/4 as intelligent as I thought I was.

So in the real world, I guess I'm of averge/slightly above average intelligence.

As for other kinds of gifts, sometimes I just KNOW things. It runs in the family. My grandmother used to say: The witch always knows. Or something along those lines. I won't go as far as to say I'm psychic, or I have special magic powers... it's a hard thing to describe.

It's simple things... like I'll be thinking of a movie and it just so happens to be playing on T.V sometime during the day. I'll be totally broke with no cigarettes and really having a nicotine fit and find a perfect, whole unused cigarette laying on the sidewalk. The whole time KNOWING that I would find one, so I'm not surprised at all when I do.

I'm good at reading people. How they're feeling, true intentions, motives, etc. It only happens by accident, though, when I really try to do it I screw it up half the time.

I know I didn't do a good job describing what I mean by 'just knowing things', but this is getting rather long now and it's hard to describe without giving dozens of intimate details about my life that i'm sure no one wants to read. . I was better at it when I was a small child, though. The 'gift' seems to be leaving me the older I grow.

Gifted? No. Do I excell in any one or more activities? No. But I believe I am being taken care of. Let me explain.

I have way to many experiences that could have ended in disaster. But I came out unscathed from each and every one of them. Luck you might say?
I don't think so.

There have been many events where a feeling suddenly came to me and I followed it. If I hadn't, God only knows what would have happened. These feelings have been with me since I was a teenager.

When I was 16 I came to a crosswalk. The traffic in front of me was stopped and the walk sign was on. The middle lane had no car there but the other two did. I stepped out in front of the first car and got this feeling, so I stopped. A car ran through the open lane, through a red light only a few seconds later. I would have been killed or seriously injured.

I worked for IBM in Houston, TX in 1993. We were a sub-contractor for McDonnel Douglas at the time, working on the Space Station. Then a big meeting in the auditorium and the anouncement that NASA no longer wanted MD has they're prime contractor. Thus IBM no longer the sub-contactor. The feeling hit me like a brick. So I took the buy-out rather then getting another posistion in IBM. Six months later IBM sold out there Federal Sector Division. There were many lay off's. The same thing at Randalls, the announcement that Safeway bought the chain. The feeling again. I resigned and most of my friends were layed off ten months later. See what I mean by being looked after?

I haven't even mentioned the countless times I have known information before it was told to me or the dreams that have come true. The feelings are strange but I have great respect for them.

Originally posted by amantine
I think most people consider themselves gifted without a good reason. There's a large chance you'll end up forgotten within a century of your death like billions before you. The problem is also that if you consider yourself gifted, you'll think to success will come to you naturally. You have to work for it.

Sadly, I'm living proof of that. I was incredibly good at maths when I was a kid, and remain quite competent academically. Sadly, however, while my teachers at junior school had puched me and challenged me and all that good stuff, at secondary school I discovered how lazy I could be, and still do well enough for teachers to be impressed. This remained largely true through my first couple of degrees, where it was very easy to get by, with occasional moments of excellence. And now I'm doing my PhD, and I realise not only how hard I need to work now, but how hard I hsould have worked in the past, and how hard it is to get back into the way of actually working when you've got used to doing the bare minimum. Still, I'm getting there, although distractions on the web don't really help with the wroking.