From the age of eight I was placed in accelerated learning classes and told I was Gifted and Talented. GT courses again and again reiterated the idea I was special and I believed it wholeheartedly. I thought I was smarter than everybody. I was perceptive: I saw truths other people ignored. I thought I was better, more capable, quicker witted, sharper tongued, more logically coherent and just superior to pretty much everyone, even my GT peers. My success was assured. My confidence in my success came from movies and books, rap songs and other capitalist pop culture promises of perfect romances and limitless wealth; it came from GT programs which told me I could be anything and which were relatively easy for me to navigate given the structures of a scholastic environment; it came from the fact I was pretty good at most of the things I bothered to try. By 22, I assumed virtually boundless capabilities were innate in me just waiting to blossom. My success would be as glorious ...
Fatherhood, Politics, Fitness and Rock.