I was a 3-year-old preschooler when I corrected my teacher’s knowledge of the constitutional requirements to be U.S. president. In kindergarten, I learned that telling my friends that Bashar al-Assad was using chemical weapons against his own people would cause kids to cry on the playground. My parents received a call from an unhappy principal that day. And telling my third-grade science teacher that her knowledge of gravity lacked depth earned me a spot on her naughty list for the rest of the year.
Adults are constantly telling me how to think and what to say. But mostly what not to say! After my doctors tested my IQ to be above the 99.9th percentile in third grade and said my EQ (emotional intelligence) was also surprisingly high, everything changed and adults started taking me more seriously ― I finally felt that I was being heard. The tests showed that I was something called “profoundly gifted.” I was admitted into Mensa International, a program for individuals with a high IQ, and became a Davidson Institute Young Scholar. My parents started getting professional advice in order to learn more about the needs of profoundly-gifted kids, and they moved me to a specialized elementary school. Today we live in the San Francisco Bay Area suburb of Pleasanton, and I attend both fourth grade and college. I am having an awesome time.