We had Claire at SwimKidsUSA almost every day or every other day for the last week or so. She was struggling with her swim class, and we got her a new teacher. I don’t think it was her current teacher at all, but she just readily seemed to click with this other instructor. While we were there watching Claire run from swim to gym to the playgrounds, my mother-in-law mentioned that Claire never slows down. Never.

I just looked at her, thinking. Suddenly I began to agree. Yes, I understood that. Just that day I was asked to teach a course, and I wholeheartedly agreed. Donna was less than happy, and I was surprised. It was more money for our family, and I didn’t think it was much more work. I began to try to put myself in Claire’s perspective. My brain is always going. I’ve got list after list of things I want to do, projects I am working on, articles I plan to write, courses I plan to develop. I have 35 books on a shelf I plan to read sooner than later. I have projects all over this place, and that’s even before I get to my home improvement ideas. It’s as if I cannot turn my mind off. I can’t say no, and I can’t slow down. I just keep going.

I wonder if Claire’s the same as me. This whole concept struck something from my mind from year’s ago. When I studied gifted education, I studied people who were just like this (and no I’m not some parent shouting from the roof tops that my kid’s gifted!) but I see signs I see in myself. My mother-in-law sees signs in Claire that she saw in Danny, my brother-in-law, when he was young. I think about people like Danny and others. Gifted kids who didn’t get the support they needed or the resources they unknowingly desired, and how do we serve them? How do we help them? How do we keep Claire loving everything without destroying that creativity, that drive that ambition? I still can’t answer for me, so what do I do for her?