Scott Barry Kaufman

And then I know I was shipped off, taken away from all my friends.

So that was like pretty traumatic.

I am really different.

Like, I am, okay, we'll go even further.

I'm a freak.

Like, I'm a freak.

Like, I am, like, something's really wrong with me.

I have a vivid memory of walking to my special ed classroom and hearing the announcement on the speaker, gifted kids report to room three for your gifted classes.

I remember thinking to myself, wow, here I am reporting to my special ed class.

Who are these people?

That was one of my first introductions to the term gifted, by the way.

It was through the speaker in my middle school.

And it was a vivid moment for me.

It really was a vivid moment because I was like, wait a minute, wait a minute.

There's a whole different class of humans that's the direct opposite of what I am.

And they're the gifted ones.

And suddenly it was like I'm stuck in the complete opposite world.

one way it felt awful was that the expectation carried me around from class to class to class even some of the more mainstream classes i was starting to be put into in middle school i remember being in a mainstream class and on the first day of class i saw this girl who i had such a crush on oh my gosh i was way too shy to ever say anything to her but i saw her all around

And she was at the front of the classroom.

And I was walking in and I think I sat at the back and the teacher opened up the class and said, is Scott Kaufman here?