Another Gifted Adult

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Meeting My Mentor and Now

My mentor🧑‍🏫, who is another gifted individual.
I met my mentor more than six years before I met my husband🐻.

When I first heard my mentor speak at that seminar,
I had an intuition that "this person is different."

The tempo of their speech, the choice of words,
and the fact that despite being an instructor, they didn't "seem like one."
The way they energized the room with a style that stayed true to themselves.
They were extremely flexible.

For me, who wanted to establish a sales style that utilized my own "true self," they were the ideal mentor.

After that, I began asking for private lessons, and now they even conduct regular group training sessions as a communication instructor at my workplace.

Phenomenal Session Ability

The communication training introduced at my workplace by my mentor for the first time.

Even that seminar-hating manager, known within the company as the "stubborn, rigid department head," was captivated by my mentor🧑‍🏫,

"When are you coming back? Please analyze me too!!"

he pleaded, causing quite a stir in the office.

The sessions are held in a group format of 5 to 10 people each time,
and in just two hours, they accurately identify each person's psychological thinking patterns and behavioral traits, even proposing future challenges for the company and ways to engage with individuals.

The analysis was so precise it was as if they had been working together for a year.
The training was also conducted in a unique style and was highly acclaimed by the employees every time.
It was always a time filled with laughter.

The Existence of a Mentor

Since then, whenever I struggled with workplace relationships, I began seeking advice from my mentor.

In some cases, I even negotiated with the company to specially arrange private lessons for my subordinates.
My career cannot be talked about without the presence of my mentor.

When my mentor finally revealed after seven years that they were "gifted," I felt both joy and a strong curiosity about what kind of environment they grew up in and how they built their current personality🧑‍🏫.

The Childhood of a Gifted Adult

My mentor naturally understands my personality well.
So, they must have realized that I, staring with curious eyes, would never back down.

Over the course of two days, they told me numerous episodes from their childhood.

They first learned they were "gifted" when they were in kindergarten.
Their parents were enthusiastic about gifted education, and they came from what is commonly called an elite family.

It seems his intelligence level was so high that a certain university, upon learning his test results, offered to cover his tuition from kindergarten through college in exchange for his cooperation in gifted research.

In the end, his parents disagreed, and he went on to attend a regular kindergarten as planned.
However, it was around that time that violent tendencies began to appear in him.

Excessive stimulation and isolation

Once he reached elementary school, his anger would explode every morning when the alarm went off.
Stopping the alarm wasn't enough; he would destroy the alarm clock with his bare hands, unable to control his emotions until his own hands were covered in blood.

Furthermore, he almost never went to school.
To him, there was no point in going.

He got perfect scores on every test.
If he read a textbook, he could input it into his brain like scanned data.
For class content, it was enough to just "play it back like a video" in his mind.
The act of copying notes 📝 was unnecessary.

He didn't even realize that this was his own "special ability".
He couldn't understand why he would need to "make an effort" to study like the children around him.

From junior high school, and his current mentor

When he entered junior high, he stopped attending school entirely.
His parents treated him as a "problem child".

In Japan at that time, "gifted" was often perceived as "someone easily misunderstood," and it seems there was little understanding from those around him.
The education system hadn't caught up yet, and his parents likely couldn't grasp the gap between his "high intelligence" and his "problematic behavior."

When he did occasionally attend school, his test scores were always high.
However, his outstanding grades and behavior drew resentment from others, making him a target for upperclassmen and students from other schools; he would get hit, and hit back.
That was how he spent his student days.

Currently, his mentor is in a position within the education industry that teaches interpersonal communication.
Before that, he worked as a host, bartender, in the restaurant industry, and in entertainment, and he is currently continuing his research on education in the welfare field while attending graduate school.

Commonalities between my husband and the mentor

Strangely, even though my husband and the mentor have led completely different lives, there are moments when I feel a certain "giftedness" that they share.
So, I decided to compare the two in my own way.

🚩Germaphobia
Husband🐻
Always wears a mask when out / Takes a shower immediately after returning home

Mentor🧑‍🏫
Wears a mask / After returning home, he takes the shortest and fastest route from the front door to the bathroom
apparently going straight there

ーーーー

🚩Memory
Husband🐻
His brain is like Nobita's room from "Doraemon": books filled with memory are organized on his study desk, in drawers, and on bookshelves, and he takes out the book and opens the page when needed


Mentor🧑‍🏫His brain is a YouTube channel: search for the title and play the video

ーーーー

🚩Food
Husband🐻
Somewhat picky / Prefers child-friendly flavors

Mentor🧑‍🏫
Only salt and whiskey when not eating out
※I'll leave it alone that he pretends to be a foodie on his own social media, acting the part🤫

ーーーー

🚩Lifestyle Habits
Husband🐻
Sleeps immediately when tired / Does not get out of bed in the morning

Mentor🧑‍🏫
Night owl / Short sleeper
↑ Email replies are always sent at dawn

ーーーー

🚩Relationships with Women
Husband🐻
One-night stands / No long-term partner

Mentor🧑‍🏫
Assumes a purely physical relationship

ーーーー

🚩When the mask of an "ordinary person" comes off
Husband🐻
Shows a sharp tongue when they let their guard down

Mentor🧑‍🏫
Business smile on the surface, intense sharp tongue underneath

ーーーー

Both of them usually use reason to pretend to be "ordinary people," but when something triggers them, their sharp-tongued persona emerges.

Why I can be my true self

I interact with both of these gifted individuals as my true self, without having to play the "good person" for their sake.

It is not because they are gifted.

For some reason, they provide a sense of security that makes me feel like it is okay to just be myself.
They certainly possess "something" that draws people in.

Living with the gifted

Gifted adults sometimes seem to be outside the bounds of common sense while pretending to be "ordinary people."
But inside, there is definitely "something" that cannot be reached through effort alone.
And it also makes one feel a certain sadness.

Whether or not we can accept that might depend on our own "flexibility."

What are "common sense" and "general standards"?
I feel that Japan, in particular, is too bound by "undefined frameworks."

🙅 It is not something decided by anyone.
📚 There is no rulebook for it.
⚖️ It is not defined by law.

If we could become a society that doesn't get caught up in such "vague frameworks," but instead recognizes, understands, and respects each other's "uniqueness"...
I believe it would surely become a kinder and more livable world 🌍 for "adult gifted" people like them.

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