Amy knows herself so well

I feel pretty certain that when I was 10, I didn't have the kind of self-awareness that Amy does. A couple of weeks ago, we had to work together to complete a self-assessment for the Futura (aka "gifted") program that Amy goes to once a week. She had an informed and thoughtful opinion on her preferred learning style - she likes to hear something once, then apply it...she doesn't like hearing things more than once, and she definitely doesn't like repeatedly practicing things. She says she always "gets it" on the first explanation.

Amy also has pretty good awareness about her emotions and what's behind them. She still gets really angry at us from time to time, but eventually she comes around to realize that though she was yelling at us, she was really upset with herself. I'm proud that she can recognize that and even more proud that she feels comfortable voicing it, and doesn't just dig in and stick with the anger.

She's a pretty great kid.

I read an interview recently with someone who's an expert on giftedness. She talked about some gifted kids being very spiritually sensitive, specifically mentioning someone she'd worked with who asked "What if I'm living in someone else's dream?" That reminded me that a couple of times, Amy has called me into her room at night, teary-eyed and sad, and when I asked why, she said "What if the world isn't real?" Try answering that!