Lab Rats

Wow, so, I really had no idea that my fourth grade teacher is actually like, a nationally known expert on gifted children. I really am tempted to get one of her books and see if we (me, my brother, my friends) make an appearance. Yeah, because it's all about us...

Her big thing seems to be the study of perfectionism:

"During her 35 year career, Callard-Szulgit has found perfectionism to be the #1 social-emotional trait of gifted children. She has helped hundreds of students recover from its harmful effects. Perfectionism and Gifted Children provides insight into perfectionism, discussing why so many gifted children are perfectionists while providing common sense solutions to this problem. This book will be an immense help to parents and teachers of gifted children and gifted children themselves."

I don't think that I've ever been a perfectionist. I did generally make deadlines, and was always able to "close the book" on a project or studying when necessary. But maybe that's a simplified view of perfectionism.

I have, frequently throughout my life, been crippled by expectations (my own and others) of what my life is/was "supposed to be". When I would lament to my last therapist about my physical and emotional short-comings, we did always come back to the fact that I'd obsess over them because they kept me from, what?, yes -- they kept me from PERFECTION. Nothing else. Not goodness. Not worthiness. Not completeness. Simply perfection.

It is interesting to note that all four of us girl/women friends have suffered from various degrees of eating disorders. Some of us still do. Maybe we always will. But then, maybe that's the case with all girls/women.

SO what's it take to really like ourselves, and like our lives?