The damage of being a gifted child.

It’s no secret many of us were called ‘gifted’ or ‘talented’ children. Perhaps it was by our teachers, parents, family. We read above the average reading level for our age, or excelled at maths and science. Perhaps we were musical prodigies, or exceptional artists.

We were praised and loved all through our childhoods and pre-teen years. However, in high school is when the negative effects of our supposed extraordinary nature are revealed.

We enter high school, where everything seems so much harder. But, many of us never developed a work ethic, or perhaps a study ethic, since we seemed to excel at everything thrown at us without trying in our younger years. We slowly start to fall behind, or get worse grades than we ever have before.

How does this affect us?

I’ll tell you how: our mental health plummets. I know, because I was once a ‘gifted and talented’ child.

It was so beyond shitty, going transitioning from GCSEs to A Levels, which is when my grades all hit rock bottom – this is an exaggeration, by the way. They were by no means rock bottom. But instead of all, or mostly, As, I got ABB in my AS levels. Granted, these were calculated grades because of COVID, although if we all got to do our exams they probably would’ve been more like UUU (essentially ungraded, for all you non-UK folk).

I felt so average. Which is by no means a bad thing. However, going from being held on a pedestal by your parents and teachers to essentially being part of the crowd – unseen, uncommendable, unexceptional – is a tough blow.

I never felt so stupid in my whole life, although I knew these ‘bad’ (please take this lightly when I say bad) grades were my own fault. Once I got into the swing of lower sixth, I essentially decided that the work was too difficult to understand and that there was too much of it, and so I just didn’t try. I should have foreseen these results when I did bare minimum. Although, at the time I still thought I would be sitting exams, and not that they would be cancelled.

This scared me. It scared me so bad. So, during higher sixth I tried the whole year. Made sure I revised hard for all my tracking assessments, made sure my homework was up to the highest standard. I spent hours on school this year, granted that I didn’t also have a part-time job, like my lower sixth year. And yes, the worry of getting crappy centre-determined grades did scare me enough to quit my job to focus on school during A2.

And now, here I am, awaiting my overall A Level results, after having tried my hardest in the end of year ‘assessments’ – essentially ‘real’ exams being replaced with class exams.

So, essentially, in this one year I had to develop a study ethic and stick to it, which I commend myself for doing. To be completely honest, I also did it for vain reasons to. I can’t help it – I want to be the best. Or, at least part of the best. I’m sure other ‘gifted’ children can relate – being the best in your younger years sets you up for wanting to be the best forever. That desire for perfection is hard to let go of.

However, I know this is dumb advice, easier said than done, all of that. But, seriously, if you feel this way: that you’re average, or not as smart as you were, just try a little bit more, and I promise you’ll see results.