Today, Cévany gives us her vision of giftedness through the “gifted interview” and thus continues my series to share on Giftedness. Thank you Cévany! She is an author and illustrator. She lives near Angoulême (France).
.IF I COULD CHOOSE, WOULD I STILL BE GIFTED?
Yes, without giftedness, I probably wouldn’t be the same, I wouldn’t want to be someone else.
.WHAT (MY OWN) GIFTEDNESS MEANS TO ME
My giftedness expresses in strong values around honesty, the need to nourish myself with interesting exchanges, and the need to undertake, and to understand everything. The need to be constantly busy, stimulated. The need to find meaning in what I do, otherwise I lose interest.
.IF I HAD TO CHOOSE AN IMAGE OR A KEYWORD THAT SUMS UP WHAT GIFTEDNESS MEANS
A puzzle to solve. Not that my giftedness is complicated, but because I really need to understand everything.
.HOW LONG HAVE I KNOWN ABOUT IT?
I found out over a year ago (I’m 32 years old).
.WHAT PHASES HAVE I GONE THROUGH SINCE MY DISCOVERY?
First, denial. I never suffered from my giftedness, I never felt different and I had a lot of preconceived ideas about gifted people (people who are a bit out of their world, socially handicapped), and I didn’t fit into that box, I didn’t understand. I wasn’t like that. I refused.
Then, the reading of my test assessment moved me, all that was written was TOTALLY me. I was discovering that certain aspects of my functioning were related to giftedness. So I started deconstructing all my stereotypes. I’ve started to find out about it. I started to accept.
After came a collapse, I questioned my whole life. If all my choices, and my way of being depended on my giftedness then did I sometimes have reactions or “bad” choices because of that? Could I have done something wrong? Was I subordinated to my giftedness? I was very reassured at that time by Elodie Crépel, with whom I had done the test, and remained available for me. She was able to help me integrate the idea that giftedness is neither good nor bad, and that it doesn’t change who I am and who I was because I was born that way, except that now I know a little bit more about myself. And from that moment on, I’ve been living well with my giftedness.
. HOW DO I EXPLAIN THIS TO SOMEONE WHO HAS NEVER HEARD OF IT?
Giftedness is simply the brain working differently. It is thinking in a different way than most other people.
.HOW IT CHANGED MY LIFE (TO KNOW IT)
Finally, a lot, even if I wasn’t in pain I now feel like I know who I really am and why I function the way I do. For example, I always needed to nourish myself with exchanges and human relations. To the point where I thought my husband had a problem, that he was too much by himself. Until I understood that the different person wasn’t necessarily him but me! I stopped expecting more from him at this point. So I learned that I was no longer part of the norm and that not everyone will function like me. In the same way, in my close family, we have an extremely strong value system and we did not understand why other people, other families were not like that. We were in our bubble, thinking that people had a weird way of functioning when it was maybe we, who were not ordinary ones. In the end, even though I have always been well integrated, I understood that if certain ways of being of other people bothered me, it was not because they were “bad” but because it touched who I was, deep down inside.
.WHAT I HAVE ALLOWED MYSELF TO DO EVER SINCE
I don’t know, I don’t feel like I’ve really changed my way of functioning..
.WHAT IT CREATES TO OTHERS WHEN I TALK ABOUT IT
Difficult to say, I am surrounded by caring people, the subject is approached like any other common subject, the reactions are neither positive nor negative.
.WHAT IRRITATES ME WITH GIFTEDNESS
Nothing annoys me in giftedness itself but I am quickly annoyed when false information circulates. It is important that this subject is addressed and that misrepresentations are deconstructed, but please, with the right information, I am quickly annoyed when everything is mixed up around this topic.
.WHAT I WOULD LIKE TO EMPHASIZE ABOUT GIFTEDNESS
There are several forms of giftedness, complex and laminar*. And it is possible to be Gifted without being an Empath (hypersensitive). Not to mention that despite these different characteristics we are all really different.
*Note by Gloria: complex have generally more a homogeneous IQ and laminar are more heterogeneous IQ (amongst other things).
.WHAT I PERSONALLY FIND TO BE THE MOST DIFFICULT
Slowing down and letting go. Or the need to understand a situation before you can have an emotional reaction.
.WHAT I PERSONALLY LOVE
I need to understand everything, so I will do everything I can to master the subjects that interest me.
.A (MIS)REPRESENTATION THAT I WANT TO CALL INTO QUESTION
It is possible to be Gifted without being an Empath (hypersensitive), which is precisely my case.
.WHAT I WANT TO SAY TO PEOPLE WHO ARE NOT GIFTED
Take the time to deconstruct the misrepresentations around this subject!
.WHAT I WOULD RECOMMEND TO SOMEONE WHO IS WONDERING
Don’t diagnose yourself alone. It is easy to recognise yourself in many things, it would be sad to build yourself around a discovery about yourself that may not correspond to reality.
.THE MISTAKE NOT TO MAKE FOR A GIFTED PERSON
I don’t have a problem with mistakes, just make them! This way you will learn and know better the next time.
.MY PROFESSIONAL ADVICE FOR GIFTED
This is not advice, but I wish you to find a job in which you can fully develop yourself.
.MY PERSONAL ADVICE FOR GIFTED
Again no advice, but I wish you to be surrounded by people who are kind to you.
.IS IT A WASTE NOT TO KNOW THAT YOU ARE GIFTED?
Probably yes, it’s nice to have some insight into how we function.
.WHEN I MEET ANOTHER GIFTED PERSON, DO I RECOGNIZE HIM.HER? BY WHAT?
I don’t know how to recognise a gifted person… How do I know? We’re all so different.
.WHAT DO GIFTED PEOPLE HAVE IN COMMON?
I have no idea. What brings me closer to other Gifted people is certainly the open-mindedness and the passionate discussions, but I can’t say for sure that it’s something all gifted people have.
.THE CRUCIAL STEPS NOT TO BE MISSED IN THE JOURNEY OF A GIFTED PERSON?
As I discovered giftedness recently I also learned everything recently.
.A WISH FOR THE FUTURE
May this subject be better known to everyone and may it no longer be suffering for gifted people.
