Gifted adult, my Mum’s testimony!

Being a zebra, the testimony of a Zebra Mom!

Who better than my own Mum to explain what it’s like to be a zebra’s mom?

It’s not easy managing a herd of zebra children. I asked my mom to give me her testimony.

I was diagnosed late, so obviously it was news for me, but also for my family. I think everyone has always found me a little atypical in the way I approach my life. She has it first. We sometimes found it hard to understand each other. Especially in adolescence, when my hypersensitivity seemed incomprehensible and unmanageable.

Zèbre, a concrete response

It was as if being gifted was a concrete and logical answer to my way of being and living. In a way, it helps those around me to understand. As for my mom, once she got over the surprise, I think she finally experienced it as a relief. Sometimes we didn’t understand each other, but that’s simply because we didn’t operate in the same way. Today, we communicate a lot and that helps us. I’ve grown up, which also makes it easier for us to talk to each other. I have the perspective of an adult, which I clearly didn’t have as a child. I was on edge. I was sick and tired of seeing my own family unable to understand me..

Desacralize the notion of giftedness, and the word “gifted”.

Like many people, my Mum didn’t really know what was behind the words gifted, giftedness, zebras etc…. She associated the word ” gifted” with enormous intellectual capacities, as if we were all necessarily Einsteins, Pascals, Plato’s etc…

So I explained to him that no, being a zebra doesn’t mean being a genius, it doesn’t mean doing extraordinary things, it doesn’t mean reinventing the Pythagorean theorem.
It’s just having a different way of looking at the world! But in the end, whether gifted or not, we all have a particular way of looking at the world and a different way of apprehending the same situation.

Detected zebra, but still the same!

I may have been detected as a zebra, but I’m still the same; apart from putting a word in about my relationship with others and with what surrounds me… I still have the same character, the same qualities, the same relationship with my Mother!

As a parent, I think it can be really disconcerting when your child is gifted. My advice to you is to listen, to take an interest in who he is and how he thinks. Don’t make him feel weird, and explain that zebra or not, we’re all different, and that’s what makes the world so rich.

Don’t deny that he’s gifted, but don’t “reduce him to that” either. It’s a characteristic, but we don’t think about it every time we breathe, and fortunately we don’t :)!

And above all, zebra or no zebra, I believe that the only thing we all really need is LOVE!

Thank you my little Mum for this testimonial, I hear you when I read you, and you know how much it touches me!

Happy reading, zebras!

A note from my Mum!

Well, I usually manage to get into writing, but this time I’m stuck!
I’m proud of what you’ve become, a beautiful young woman… Because when I was younger, it wasn’t easy!

It’s true that as a kid you stood out from the crowd. But now I’m blown away! Delighted, of course, but I have to admit that you sometimes frightened me with your energy, your will to do things your way and to go for it, not head first, but always sure of yourself, and my faith, come what may, the result was there.

You’re one of those zebras and I’ve always had a fascination for these animals, which I find very beautiful! In fact, I took hundreds of photos of them in Tanzania!

Somewhere, I wish I could be like you.

Here you are my Belle, I wish you a very very happy life, you deserve it a thousand times over….
Enjoy everything and never put it off until tomorrow.

Your Mom, who loves you very much.

You can also find more information, resources and tools on Giftedness in Mel POINAS‘ book. With a lot of humor, Mel tells the story of the discovery of her giftedness and the routines she put in place to finally find her place!

To go further, you can read

• Characteristics of High Potential
• How to take the WAIS 4 test?
• Managing hypersensitivity when you’re gifted
• Inside the head of a teenage zebra
• Testimony of Jenny, in praise of my difference, proud to be a zebra
• Testimony of Julie, mother of a happy zebra family

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