Today, Bénédicte Braud shares her vision of giftedness through the Gifted Interview. Thank you, Bénédicte! She is a Content Creator and currently lives in the Paris region.
.IF I COULD CHOOSE, WOULD I STILL BE GIFTED?
If I could choose, I would stay who I am (with a young Brigitte Bardot look haha), so yes.
.WHAT (MY OWN) GIFTEDNESS MEANS TO ME
I honestly don’t know what comes from this for me. I can’t distinguish which of my actions and emotions are driven by this particularity. So I would say that my giftedness is staying true to myself and not trying to hide who I am.
.IF I HAD TO CHOOSE AN IMAGE OR A KEYWORD THAT SUMS UP WHAT GIFTEDNESS MEANS
A tree with many leaves.
.HOW LONG HAVE I KNOWN ABOUT IT?
Since I was 12, I am now 29.
.WHAT PHASES HAVE I GONE THROUGH SINCE MY DISCOVERY?
I don’t feel that I have gone through any particular phases. As a teenager, faced with the incomprehension of others, I doubted the result of the IQ test and decided not to talk about it anymore unless it came up in conversation. To give some context, I had said it in class as something very natural, as if I had said “I was born in October”, and I was called a liar, I was told that I was trying to make myself interesting because I didn’t have excellent grades… I realised at that moment how little was known about it. My mother showed me the results of my test and we had a conversation, I stopped doubting myself but I understood that in order not to be stigmatised, it was better not to say anything. Now I still only talk about it if I’m asked and I definitely don’t define myself as just that.
.HOW DO I EXPLAIN IT TO SOMEONE WHO HAS NEVER HEARD OF IT?
It all depends on how open they are to the subject. If I’m in front of someone who is really looking for knowledge then I explain that it’s not something that defines a human entirely. That there are as many giftedness as there are gifted people and that it’s just a way of thinking about everything in life differently, but that doesn’t mean that we can’t all come to the same conclusion. I always make it clear that this doesn’t put any human above another, it just makes a part of the population that won’t have the same reactions, nor the same ways of thinking as the majority.
.THE REMARK WHICH BLEW ME AWAY MOST WHEN I TALKED ABOUT IT
“Stop lying if you have an IQ of 139, I have at least 190″, by a guy in my class at 16.
.HOW IT CHANGED MY LIFE (TO KNOW IT)
Knowing it at such a young age, honestly not much. I don’t even remember exactly how I found out. I just remember having a lot of fun during the test. I do think that knowing early on and being well supported by your parents avoids many moments of doubt when you grow up.
.WHAT IT CREATES TO OTHERS WHEN I TALK ABOUT IT
Curiosity or judgment. So I select the people I talk to about it.
.WHAT IRRITATES ME WITH GIFTEDNESS
The stereotypes that go with it.
.WHAT I WOULD LIKE TO EMPHASIZE ABOUT GIFTEDNESS
The great sensitivity to the world that it brings (and even then, this does not concern all gifted people).
.WHAT I PERSONALLY FIND TO BE THE MOST DIFFICULT
The fact that I make a mountain out of a molehill. It can last for days and as long as I haven’t finished gnawing on my bone I get stuck, it sometimes takes on totally ridiculous proportions but I can’t help it.
.WHAT I PERSONALLY LOVE
This sensitivity and the fact that I can identify people and situations very quickly. I’m one of the hyper-adaptable gifted. It’s tiring but it’s also very useful. I realised this when I became an adult.
.MY WELLBEING TOOL OR PRACTICE THAT HELPS ME MOST
Taking baths in the dark with some candles and my special relaxation playlist.
I’ve also learned to take a break to catch my breath when I need it.
.A MISREPRESENTATION THAT I WANT TO CALL INTO QUESTION
That we are all some kind of weird scientists who know all the capitals of the world by heart.
.WHAT I WANT TO SAY TO GIFTED PEOPLE
I’m asking for an G, I’m asking for a I, an F, a T… Let’s all go together Gifted.
I am joking.
Love each other!
.WHAT I WANT TO SAY TO PEOPLE WHO ARE NOT CONCERNED
Let’s love each other
.WHAT I WOULD RECOMMEND TO SOMEONE WHO IS WONDERING
Take the test. This is the only way to remove this questioning. And above all, don’t perceive it as a success or a failure. Is someone born in October disappointed that they were not born in January? It’s not an achievement, it’s just a fact. Knowing this will lead to answers, but if it’s not, then it will lead to looking for those answers elsewhere.
.THE MISTAKE NOT TO MAKE FOR A GIFTED PERSON
Feeling superior.
.MY PROFESSIONAL ADVICE FOR GIFTED
Accept that the majority do not think like you and that they simply cannot have that thought pattern.
.MY PERSONAL ADVICE FOR GIFTED
Ah well, same thing.
.A BOOK TO READ ON THE SUBJECT
No idea but Elodie Crepel’s blog (in French) is the first step.
NB from Gloria: If this name sounds familiar, (re)discover the interview of Alexis Crépel 😉
.MY OPINION ABOUT THE IQ WAIS TEST
I was too young to remember in detail except that I had a blast for 2 hours. I didn’t even care that it was a test for that.
On the other hand, IQ alone doesn’t mean much to me, it’s just a number, it can’t define a human.
.IS IT A WASTE NOT TO KNOW THAT YOU ARE GIFTED?
It all depends on your life experience. If everything is going well in one’s life, no. If there are flaws and it could provide answers then yes.
.WHEN I MEET ANOTHER GIFTED PERSON, DO I RECOGNIZE HIM.HER? BY WHAT?
Yes, we’re doing a competition about the capitals of the world. We finish tied and hug each other.
In fact, I never say to myself, “Oh, this person must be gifted”, but in general I have real love at first sight with people who later tell me that they are gifted. I think I’ve noticed that it’s mostly from the humour. When we both have fun and lose others, it clicks. But I rarely notice that at first glance.
.WHAT DO GIFTED PEOPLE HAVE IN COMMON?
I ask for a G, I ask for an I, an F, a T… Sorry, I’ll stop.
I don’t think there is a common denominator that brings us together. Being gifted doesn’t make a person whole, I don’t think we all have a common characteristic.
Apart from having been tested as gifted.
.THE LAST THING I LEARNED ON THE SUBJECT (THAT I’D LIKE TO SHARE)
That the capital of Turkmenistan is Ashgabat (obviously I just googled that).
More seriously, having learned it at a young age I built myself up knowing that certain peculiarities came from there and didn’t make me a weird or crazy person, so I never really looked into it. I recently learned that there are two types of Gifted: Complex and Laminar*. That’s it. But it didn’t change much in my life.
*Note by Gloria: complex have generally more a homogeneous IQ and laminar are more heterogeneous IQ (amongst other things).
.AN INSPIRATION FROM ANOTHER COUNTRY
Donald Trump? THIS IS A JOKE
.A WISH FOR THE FUTURE
That it becomes better known and above all that we stop making a big deal of it as if it was national pride. OH MY GOD, WE HAVE A GIFTED PERSON IN THE FAMILY. Thank you, Karen, that doesn’t stop him.her from becoming a big jerk.
It doesn’t put anyone above anyone else at all.
.THE QUESTION THAT I WAS MISSING BUT THAT I WOULD LIKE TO ANSWER?
As I have an Instagram account that is very much focused on motherhood, I often get the question of how to properly accompany a child who has been tested as Gifted. Here is my answer.
The most important thing is not to make him fit into a mould, neither the mould of the learned monkey who should be better than the others because of parental pride, nor the mould of the abnormal because we don’t understand him. To accompany him is to let him be who he is by linking his particularities to this simple fact. You think differently, you are intense, you don’t always understand others and you often feel misunderstood? It’s ok, it’s linked to this particularity that you will never be able to change in yourself, but we can put things in place together to make you feel better. You will see that you are not alone and that everything passes.
At school, we often have to teach him to learn. The system is not designed for an atypical brain, often gaps appear quickly because a gifted child will understand very quickly and will not necessarily see the point of learning. Except that without learning, the more schooling advances, the more difficult it becomes to keep up.
