Question 4

4. What is your biggest strength? How did you develop it?

I guess my intelligence, my "smarts." How'd I develop it? How can you not, when some of your mother's favorite phrases are things like that "Why wasn't that an A?" It didn't hurt that my beloved grandfather gave me $20 for every report card, and I knew that wouldn't continue unless I kept getting good grades.

My mother once told me that she and my father were given the option of having me skip third grade, but chose not to because they didn't want me to end up socially isolated, or awkward or anything like that. Hindsight being what it is, it certainly couldn't have hurt anymore than the awkward way that I went through school anyway. I was enrolled in the gifted education program, which was mostly worthless; all it got me was out of regular classes once a week and we studied things like ancient civilizations. We also played a lot of Oregon Trail and the Lemonade Stand game or something. Not exactly the height of intellectual stimulation for developing minds. I'm reassured that the gifted ed program at the Muhlenberg school district is much better now than it was for me and my cohorts.