Comment by ryandv

ACE of 7, labelled as "gifted" as some point but was somehow talked out of pursuing accelerated education programs by a parent, grew increasingly disenchanted with the education system but managed to get my shit together enough to make it into a top-tier university program until family issues re-emerged and I ended up dropping out.

Still made it out OK as a homeowner with no student debt, but between the first 20-odd years of my life spent limping along and trying to pick up the pieces from my "adverse childhood" and another 4 or so odd years of pandemic lockdown, it feels like much of my early life was taken from me against my will.

I am satisfied with my achievements in spite of my tumultuous upbringing. That being said there will always be an undercurrent of "wasted potential" or "what if" I had the fortune of more fortuitous life circumstances.

As a sidebar I also am absolutely apoplectic with the blatantly sexist assumption in one of the ACE questions that it is the father who physically abuses the mother or threatens them with a weapon, but given that this is NPR I am not surprised.