It all started in first grade when you eagerly finished the entire workbook in one night. You thought your teacher would be pleased. She was not pleased. You were told to sit and color the pictures and WAIT until the other first graders caught up with you.
Then there was the time they were teaching addition and you had been doing complicated calculations in your head since you were four. You were told to WAIT. You were too young to learn fractions.
When you were eleven, you were dying to read The Autobiography of Malcolm X but you were told to WAIT. That was the book everyone was required to read in high school.
When you scored in the 99th percentile in reading and math and could easily work two years above grade level, it was decided that you shouldn’t skip a grade. You needed to WAIT until you were more emotionally and socially mature, even though you were capable of contributing confidently to discussions with your parents’ friends.
You wanted to know about death and God. You were told to WAIT until you were a grownup because you wouldn’t understand.
You’re still waiting.
Your colleagues at work take hours to conclude what you knew last week.
Your boss wants you to calm down and slow down and not share your ideas just yet. Maybe next week.
You’ve completed all of your assigned work for the day and it’s only 1pm.
Your supervisor says she’ll get back to you with the answers to your questions. She never does.
You’ve learned everything you can about your job and now the tasks are frustrating and boring.
You wonder when you can share the fascinating article you read in the New Yorker while friends talk about recipes and reality TV.
You have so much to say about so many things but you have to find the right time to speak so that you don’t overwhelm your partner, friends, relatives, children and pets with your enthusiasm, sensitivities and ideas. (Well, OK, maybe your pets aren’t overwhelmed.)
Waiting. Waiting. Waiting.
In his book, The Boy Who Played With Fusion, Tom Clynes wrote:
“Waiting was the most common response when Tracy Cross of the college of William and Mary asked thirteen thousand kids in seven states to describe in one word their experience as gifted children.”
Thirteen thousand kids. Waiting.
Imagine a world where gifted kids don’t have to wait. A world where you can be yourself. Imagine the possibilities.
I want to live in that world.
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To my blogEEs: Tell us about the times that you or your kids have had to wait. What was it like? How did you cope? And for the skeptics among you, I understand that patience is important and there are times when we all need to wait. And, yet. This is about WAITING. You know what I’m talkin’ about. And thank you, as always, for reading and sharing.
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