Life Things Are Tiring.

To sad adults who were “gifted” kids:

Work on developing a contentment-based lifestyle, rather than an achievement-based one.  Stress isn’t a sign that you’re doing well, it’s the opposite.  (When you figure out how to do this, please share your notes with the class.) 

I am simultaneously the most emotional / least emotional person I know.

That’s what careless words do. They make people love you a little less.

Arundhati Roy (via infj-misc)

Hardship often prepares an ordinary person for an extraordinary destiny.

C.S. Lewis (via logicsensi)

Mr. Shark

“Peter is a child.” Tony hisses into the phone. He’s keeping one eye on the kid from where he is standing, not hiding just standing, around the corner.

“He’s normally a child Tony, what’s your point?” Rhodey asks, Tony can hear him yawning over the line.

“Yes, he’s normally like 14 though not 4.” Tony is definitely not screeching in distress. “Normally he is my height, not this tiny thing.”

“What?” Rhodey asks, and he sounds more awake now.

“I don’t know, Friday says it’s Peter, but he’s like 2.” Tony peeks out to see Peter trying to pull himself onto the couch, he gets a wave and a gap-toothed grin.

“I thought he was 4.” Rhodey points out, and it sounds like he’s laughing at Tony.

“I don’t know what age he is, he’s small Rhodey. I need help, please come help me with the spider kid.” He pleads, waving back at Peter. Peter starts to toddle towards him.

“I’ll be there tomorrow morning.” Rhodey grumbles, and the dial tone sounds in his ear. Tony’s eyes are wide with fear when Peter bumps into his leg.

“Tomorrow morning?” His voice is little more than a squeak.

“That is what he said boss.” Friday replies, she sounds smug.

“Okay, hi Peter.” Tony greets crouching down next to the kid. “I’m Tony Stark.” He holds out his hand to the little guy.

“Hi!” Peter shouts, grabbing onto his hands. “I like your bobots.” He holds out his arms in the normal kid gesture for pick me up, and Tony does, hefting the kid onto his hip.

“Really, which of my robots is your favorite?” He asks, bouncing a little. Peter squeals excitedly.

“I like the nice wall lady, and the dumb rolly robot, but my favorite is suit lady.” He informs Tony, nodding excitedly. “She’s nice.” Tony laughs.

“She is, isn’t she? You know I think you are her favorite human too.” He pokes Peter’s nose for emphasis. Peter giggles, grabbing onto his glasses with one hand, and yanking them off his face. “Ow.” Tony winces, and the glasses snap in half, apparently the little spider still has some super strength.

“Oh no.” His eye’s go wide and glossy and he looks up at Tony. “Please no mad. I didn’t mean to Mr. Shark.” Tony is trying very hard not to look like he wants to cry. “Please don’t leave.” Peter sniffles.

“I’m not leaving Peter, I’m right here. The glasses are dumb anyways.” He takes what’s left of them from Peter and drops them in the garbage. “See all gone.”

“No gone. I broke the boat and you were gone, no leaving now.” Peter insists, clutching at Tony’s shirt. Tony drops onto the couch, he needs to look put together for the kid, but his heart feels like it’s breaking in his chest. He gave Peter abandonment issues. He was trying to break the cycle, and he failed. Gesturing with his left arm for Dum-E to come over, he tries to soothe the kid.

“I’m so sorry Peter. I shouldn’t have left you then, and I won’t leave you now. I promise.” He pats Peter’s pack in an attempt to be comforting. Dum-E rolls over, blanket clutched in his claw.

“Pinky promise?” Peter asks, holding up his pinky.

“Pinky promise.” Tony links his pinky with Peter’s just as Dum-E drops a blanket onto both of their heads. “Thanks Dum-E.” Tony grumbles, it makes Peter giggle so Tony will consider it a success.

“You’re not mad?” Peter asks.

“Nah those glasses were dumb anyways. I’m much prettier without them.” Tony informs him. Peter reaches out, grubby fingers poking at Tony’s cheeks.

“Your eye is dark under. Aunt May says it’s a bag but that doesn’t make any sense.” Peter informs him. “You put things in bags.” He informs Tony.

“I do not have bags under my eyes.” Tony insists. Peter looks as unconvinced as a four-year-old can. “I get a healthy amount of sleep.”

“Mr. Shark, you don’t sleep, ever.” Peter points out, and Tony doesn’t really have an argument, and he doesn’t really want to correct Peter’s pronunciation of Stark, so it’s time to change the topic.

“Friday, how long until Rhodey gets here?”  He asks.

“Based on his flight plan, he should arrive at the building in approximately 10 hours.”  Friday replies. Tony tries not to look absolutely horrified.

“I’m going to die.” He whispers, Peter pats his cheek comfortingly.

“Don’t worry Mr. Shark, I protect you.” Peter assures him, it’s the cutest thing Tony has ever seen and he’s going to wrap this kid in bubble wrap and never let him outside into the dangerous world ever again.

Here's to all the kids who grew up gifted but have no social skills now.

Holy fuck isn’t this basically what Brave New World was about?? Making different social classes based on intelligence??

Appalachian History Lesson - The Eugenics Movement

“Idiots shouldn’t be allowed to breed.”

How many times have you heard that? Or maybe even said it? It’s a common statement upon encountering someone that embodies an ideology that we don’t agree with, or someone whose life choices are less than admirable. But did you know that in our own American history, we liked that idea so much that we actually tried to make it happen? It’s true. It happened under the Eugenics Movement, the brainchild of Francis Galton (cousin to Charles Darwin who took his cousin’s discoveries and spiraled a bit out of control). If you’ve never heard of this movement (and the great likelihood is that you haven’t, since we tend to like to keep it hush hush), it would do you a great deal of good to research it.

In Appalachia, this movement was detrimental. The basic idea was that, since genes are inherited from parent to child, traits could also be inherited. In that case, humans could be bred for certain traits. We could encourage those with positive traits (intelligence, primarily) to breed with like, thus creating a super race of humans. This was called positive Eugenics. The other side of this was that we could prevent people with negative traits from breeding at all, and thus exterminate “undesirables.” This was negative Eugenics.

The masses were breeding at high rates, and with poverty gripping a great percentage of the population, more and more children were likely to fall to the same fates as their parents. Poverty was a “trait” that could be “inherited,” which only made sense considering poor parents begat poor children. Poverty came with overpopulation. Some of the family studies completed by eugenicists reported an average of 4.2 children per mother in certain Appalachian areas. After the immigrant boom of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the eugenicists were ready to take necessary measures. The first target was the population with mental deficiencies – those unfortunate enough to be deemed “feebleminded” - the paupers, criminals, mentally insane, homosexuals, promiscuous women, and the mentally retarded. The method? Sterilization. This became well known and popular after the Virginia (and Supreme Court) case Buck v Bell (1927), in which it was determined that because Carrie Buck was “feeble-minded” due to her lack of education and her mother’s feeble-mindedness, she should be sterilized. Carrie had been raped and had a child of this rape that, though only an infant, was determined feeble-minded by appearance. Thus Carrie was sterilized against her will, unable to ever have children again.

This law legitimized use of sterilization when a person was deemed a “genetic threat.” As you may believe, due to the lack of education and material wealth in Appalachia, we were a target. Appalachians were viewed as “poor white trash” and the “tainted white” and were discriminated against heavily throughout the rest of America (these ideas remain with those who group all Appalachians into the categories of hillbilly, redneck, or even white trash). Women were often sterilized against their will in hopes that the Appalachian population would die off without being able to reproduce, and could then be replaced by a more civilized and intelligent group of Americans.

The movement finally started to die when none other than Adolf Hitler grasped the idea and started using it to exterminate the Jews. I believe that was America’s wake up call, and by the 60s most of the sterilization laws were completely revoked. Hitler’s use of Eugenic policies has made America ashamed of its trying to eliminate its poor and uneducated, and trying to eliminate Appalachia. Yet here we remain — as strong and stoic as the mountains that protect us.

honor™

Alright friends, if you want a Facebook page with cute aro, ace, and enby positivity (and seems to be inclusionists only!) This is the page for you.

I stumbled upon it and it’s filled with cute puns, pictures, and positivity (they also share Tumblr posts and art they like)

I say we should support them!

Okay, so you’ve been called smart all your life. As a kid, you were one of the smartest in your class. Maybe you could read at a much higher level than your peers, or you could fly through multiplication drills like they were nothing. Then, you get to high school and suddenly you’re surrounded by lots of people who were ‘gifted kids’. None of what made you ‘special’ seems all that important now. Your work is actually challenging, and it’s actually requiring effort.

If you’re experiencing this, just know that so many students have gone through the same thing. Maybe it happens in high school, maybe college. But a lot of us who were considered gifted as kids suddenly run into this and it challenges our entire identity. It can be paralyzing, but it’s 100% possible to overcome it and succeed! I’ve compiled a few tips for ex-gifted kids dealing with impostor syndrome and self-doubt. I’m not a therapist, psychologist, or any sort of education expert. I’m just speaking to my own experiences, and I welcome any input from others who have insight into this as well!

1. Understand that working hard does not mean you aren’t intelligent. If something doesn’t come naturally to you, that’s not a reason to give up. Believing that people can do things “just because they were born with a talent for it” is only going to hurt you. It’s not true! People may have natural aptitudes for things, but hard work is involved even for the smartest or most talented people. You are capable of learning anything, and you don’t have to be “good at it” right away to do so.

2. Comparison will kill you. You are your only competition. Focusing on how you rank with other students, and comparing yourself to your classmates is going to exhaust you. By focusing on others, you can’t put your full energy into focusing on your work and yourself. You belong. Even if you struggle with your work, you belong. Focus on your own self-improvement and doing your best.

3. Don’t focus on the goal, focus on your current actions. If you’re always thinking about the future, and about whether you’ll get into that school or that program or win that award or get that scholarship, you’re not using that time to get work done. Don’t worry about college applications, just do your homework. Focus on what you are doing now to reach your goals so you can apply to schools with confidence later.

4. Your grades may not reflect intelligence, but they do reflect work ethic. Don’t let others convince you that grades mean nothing. They sure as hell mean a lot to colleges, and thinking that you should “reject the current education system” is not going to harm anyone but yourself. If you don’t feel like you’re learning anything in your high school classes, that’s all the more reason to want to get into a university that will challenge you. If you put effort into your work, it will not let you down. Your hard work will be reflected on your transcript. Don’t lose focus.

5. Talk to someone. Let people know if you’re struggling. It can be hard to feel like you aren’t allowed to identify as “smart” or to feel pressure to constantly compete and improve. I went to a highly competitive high school that pushed kids to cope in dangerous ways. This is not healthy and not okay. If you’re feeling overwhelmed you need to find healthy coping mechanisms. Speak with someone you trust and don’t let yourself spiral. Don’t try to self medicate. Your well being is always more important than your grades. Period.

6. Enjoy yourself. School may seem like hell, and you may feel like it will never end and you’ll always be stressed and worried. But high school is only four years, and you can do things during that time that you probably won’t ever again. Take advantage of things that seem fun, even if people think they’re nerdy or weird. Try and remind yourself that you’re lucky to have your education and you have the power to do great things with it. Don’t lose sight of your own ability and your bright future!