53 Adults Who Were “Gifted” Kids Back In School Reveal How Things Are Going For Them

I think the biggest piece I learned was that intelligence and wisdom do not go hand in hand. Best friend growing up was in same programs as me. We both screwed around in high school. He ended up dropping out as money became a greater focus than education. Was doing quite well initially making me jealous as he was earning money while I was struggling financially and bumbling through school.

I got myself together coasting through college and worked my way up to where I’m doing well financially and happy with my success. My friend stagnated and never advanced very far in life before he OD’d and passed away about 10 years ago.

There are multiple iterations of this among the people in our classes. Ultimately it’s a singular journey in life and are on our own paths to success, failure or just getting by.

I was mislabeled because i tested well.  Recognizing patterns and being able to read for which details are likely to be on the test are not intelligence. Adaptability and ability to absorb information are.


I could read at 5th grade level in first grade.  I could read at 6th grade level in fourth grade
 My peers passed me because i never learned how to study. It came easy in the lower grades and when it became difficult, i was left with no strategy to cope.

Straight A+ report card until right before graduation when they gave me a B+ in gym and cost me valedictorian. I imploded. Collapsed. Total breakdown. Crackedd like an egg. Blew up my life and lost my college scholarship. Then real life taught me that I wasn’t as smart as I thought I was. Turned out to have a good life but only after a couple decades of struggle—I never became the rich and famous person I was *expected* to be.

I'm at that uncomfortable level where I was told I'm gifted, genius even, but I've always been keenly aware of just how much of a *f*****g idiot* I really am, and *also* keenly aware of, despite that, still somehow being much more intelligent than the average people I deal with every single day.

It's a curse much more than a "gift.".

I suppose i did follow it all the way through. Tons of AP, special summer programs, and tests. I was geared up to be a chemistry PhD but switched gears to go to medical school to impress a girl. I'm burned out with practice

Yeah, senior dev in AI at a Fang, married to a Doctor. Nerds win.

I got kicked out of the GATE program in elementary for trying to make thunder sounds with paper while listening to a story about lightning, dropped out of high school senior year with a 1.67 gpa. Surfed/snowboarded and worked retail for almost a decade.

Went back to community college, transferred to UC Berkeley and graduated. Worked in Silicon Valley for over another decade and never grew to find tech remotely interesting.

I’ve now escaped the US and live in Japan still working tech for a fraction of what I once made but I’m happier. Go figure.

Reddit loves a narrative where gifted kids aren’t doing well as adults. I got a PhD, met tons of interesting people through school and work, and have a well-paying technical career I find fulfilling. Life is good.

Labelled as academically gifted in primary school (UK) after learning to read and write fluently at 5. Put into top set everything. Got into a very competitive academically selective secondary school.

Followed me through to secondary school. Top set everything aside maths as some of the kids there were insane with numbers. Slammed through GCSEs and ended up with 15 of them, all passes, 11 of the 15 A or A*.

Didn't do so well with A Levels but still passed them all and got into the university I wanted. Slammed through a degree, first class honours, never got below a first on any paper or class.

I now work in the public sector doing project management work. I'm later to it as I did customer service first, but I love it and there's excellent opportunity for growth where I work. My aim is to hit a senior role by the time I'm 40 (am late 20s now). I would say I've carried it through to adult life.

However.

I had some pretty bad anxiety as a child and teenager. I was always described as mature for my age but this was down to worrying about adult stuff and the state of the world (my parents were excellent and didn't put this stuff on me or anything, I just... saw it, I guess? More so than other kids). I have always struggled with building deep connections with others, yet am seen as social and friendly because I can turn it on when needed and get on well with everyone at surface level. I'm good with details so I remember birthdays, etc. I cope well with stress at work because I believe I can do it, but stress at home I really struggle with. With all this in mind, I've been wondering if I'm on the spectrum. It would explain an awful lot.

Labeled as 'gifted', all A's, finished associates by time I finished high school, grew up too fast, mature for my age, too smart for my own good, etc.

HUGE burnout. Got a bipolar, adhd, panic disorder and anxiety diagnoses.
Everything exhausts me and I think the only thing that kept me going back then was my dad's severe pressure for me to be perfect.

I was an honors student throughout my high school and higher education years. Beyond that, it hasn’t really carried over. I currently work an average, non-prestigious job. Being gifted stopped being a part of my identity once I left behind academia for the real world. I’ve suffered many a burnout over the past decade and a half. Mental illness seems to be particularly common in former gifted kids. Or maybe we’re just the ones who are the most vocal about it. .

I wouldn’t say I burned out, I just stopped caring.

Freshman year of high school, i thought the classes were so dumb. Getting good grades was more about showing up and doing busy work than it was about actually knowing the material, so I pretty much stopped doing both. For example, in math my test and quiz score average was over 100%, but because of not turning in homework and not showing my work enough I had to beg for a D instead of an F. How was I supposed to take any of that seriously?

After a 3.85 in middle school, I graduated high school with a 2.01 gpa. I spent the next 8 years attending 6 or 7 different colleges and finally earning a BA in history with like a 2.75 I think. Kinda the same story, my gpa would have been a lot higher if not for all the Fs on my transcript from classes that dropped me for poor attendance.

The last thing I wanted to do was more school, and you can’t do much else with a history degree, so I joined the Air Force. I tested into one of the hardest jobs to get, graduated basic training and two different technical schools all with honors. Got to my first duty station and basically did busy work until my contract ran out.

I’ve dabbled in several “careers” in the ten years since, I even went back and got two masters degrees. Now I’m a stay at home dad and I don’t really want to do anything else.

I burned out in late high school and college and ended up doing the minimum to get done with school. I un-burned-out in my late 20s after getting divorced from the guy I married right out of school and am “smart” again, lol.