When I complain about being a ‘gifted’ kid who grew into a talentless adult I don’t mean that I’m not trying to work on my talents or anything
I mean that the ‘gifts’ I had are useless
Reading books above my age isn’t a talent when I’m not eleven
Knowing big words isn’t a talent when I’m not a kid, it’s just growing up
It’s just a weird thing that happens and it feels shitty when you’re brought up being told you’re an exceptional child only to realise as an adult you’re just average
This
I did a lot of reading about gifted kids and especially gifted adults when I got my “diagnosis” because I was told I was gifted at 23 and well, it serves no purpose to have a confirmation that you’re gifted at 23
Thing is, gifted children are not amazingly better than everyone else. Gifted brains just don’t work the same so they build their skills in a different order
Basically when you’re very young, most people brain learn social skills and how to interact with their peers, but gifted brains are already at the next step which is how to understand and interact with the world
That makes the stereotypical young children that are very good at math, always asking questions about how things work, very upset when they don’t know a thing
But the thing is, when everyone gets older, they’ve mastered most social skills and now turn towards understanding the world
But the gifted children have already mastered that part and are turning towards how to build social skills. Except there’s no one left to teach us about that! Because we’re late to that party
Long story short, at the end everyone, gifted or not, goes through all the necessary steps to make functioning adults, so the difference that was obvious as a child has disappeared
But us gifted people often end up with social anxiety and impostor syndrome because we are actually less equipped than others to face a world that taught everyone to be confident and talk to people while we were busy reading books above our age
How come there are so few magical birth control options in fantasy settings?
There is Jewelry Of Contraception, Miscarriage Hex, and Abortion Potion, and that’s it.
But come on, guys, it’s magic. Those are both things we can accomplish in the real world with science.
Why not “as long as this knot remains tied, your pregnancy will not progress any further. The embryo is fine, just frozen in time until you’re ready to become a parent!”
Or “I have turned the baby into a berry. get the father of the baby to eat it, and it’s his problem now”
Or “I’ve hexed your gonads, you won’t have any kids at all ever until you do a favor for a witch, preferably me”
Or “lol, I stole your dick in the middle of the night and put it on my tree with all the other dicks in the village”
Come on, guys, get creative!
man, I was thinking too small. it’s MAGIC, guys
“I have put the baby inside this seed. when you plant the seed, a flower will grow, and your baby will be inside it. your baby might be the size of a mouse, or uh look like a mouse, but hey, we can’t have everything. it can still talk and wear clothes, and those are the important things, right? it’ll save you a ton of cloth over the years, trust me”
“I have sent the baby into the future. the NEXT time either of you has a kid, it will be this baby, regardless of who you have it with. this baby will always be top of the queue until one of you lets it be born.”
“I took your womb, and put it in an eggshell in a duck in a chest in a tree guarded by a dragon at the end of the world. so the next time you get pregnant, it will definitely be on purpose.”
“I turned the baby into a cat. everyone likes kittens, right?”
“the baby isn’t “dead” so much as “turned back into an egg and a splash of jizz.” magic is cool, isn’t it?”
“you will only ever be fertile immediately after you eat turnips. and by immediately, I mean, put a turnip on the nightstand, if you catch my drift.”
“I have donated your fetus to the fetus lottery that witches draw from for infertile couples. it’s, uh, currently in this cauldron. yes this looks like leek and potato soup, but trust me, it’s a fertility potion.”
“here is your baby. a stick. I definitely turned a real human child into a stick, and didn’t give it to the fairies. this stick is for you to keep.”
honestly these r great but none are as weird as Hans My Hedgehog
part of Sherwood Smith’s worldbuilding is that no one can get pregnant without taking a special herb; infertile people, same-sex couples, single people, and people who don’t want to have sex with their spouse (only non-squicky arranged marriages i’ve read to date) can… basically Wish a baby into existence? it’s great. there are also zero STIs, and the cultures are almost all accepting of multiple partners.
When I suggested that R2-D2 has a Shit List and a long list of meticulous petty-to-terrible offenses for each person on it, some people have suggested that this Shit List (which obviously stars the Skywalkers) somehow excludes Leia.
Like, on one hand, I could see R2 telling others (Luke, Han) that Leia “has never done anything wrong in her life (how dare you)” to mess with them. But, on the other hand, I am deeply and sincerely offended by the notion that Leia’s Shit List isn’t just as long as any other Skywalker, if not twice as long as Luke or Han.
(I will give you that Anakin and Obi-Wan’s lists are probably incomparably hideous, where some of the many, many entries (especially Anakin’s) are just one to three words and a lot of offended exclamation points. Like: “SHIT LIST -> Category: Jedi -> My Boy -> New Entry -> CRASH!!!!!!! >:(!”An example which surely matches at least a dozen entries.)
Like, for one thing, Leia’s Shit List would obviously have an entire section dedicated to “Illegal Things Leia Needed To Hide So She Dumped Them In Me Like I’m A Fucking Trash Can Or Her Purse”, with items ranging from “a secret blaster she couldn’t hide up her skirt” to “proof of Senator X’s corruption and/or drug dealing” to “stolen Death Star plans”.
Lately I’ve been doing this thing where when men give me shit at my job, I choose to instead speak to their wives/girlfriends/female counterpart. I had a dude today try to yell at me and I ignored him and instead spoke in a very level voice to his wife instead. He literally stomped his feet like a fucking toddler and said “stop ignoring me! I’m talking!” And his wife said “George, please use a quieter voice. You’re embarrassing me.”
You are a genius and I’m using this
Lol I learned it from my mom. She does this all the time and eventually the guy either sulks off somewhere or adjusts his behaviour and THEN she’ll address him. I did this with my friends puppies when I was training them and it works the same tbh
This is the kind of behavior you use on little kids, which I find both hilarious, disturbing and very telling of how little we expect men to GROW THE FUCK UP
this one’s a few days late due to having a lot of doctors appointments sorry it’s just 9 pages, and about some rats… it’s more symbolic than anything really
(it’s completely unrelated to any of my songs that have to do with “puzzleboy”)
“[Also] my parents on the show, they’re very supportive of my sexual preference, and maybe this can serve as an inspiration to parents at home watching who are dealing with a child who is gay or lesbian and not knowing how to communicate or be as a open. I hope that our family on the show is an inspiration for some families just to be open and accept your children and love them. The Pierce family does a great job of doing that.” ― Nafessa Williams for Entertainment Weekly
never make a suicide joke again. yes this includes “i wanna die” as a figure of speech. swear off of it. actually make an effort to change how you think about things.
find something to compliment someone for at least 4 times a day. notice the little things about the world that make you happy, and use that to make other people happy.
talk to people. initiate conversation as often as you possibly can. keep your mind busy and you wont have to worry anymore
picture the bad intrusive thoughts in youe head as an edgy 13 year old and tell them to go be emo somewhere else
if someone makes you feel bad most of the time, stop talking to them. making yourself hang out with people who drain you is self harm. stop it.
… 8|
That’s some pretty good advice. I don’t know what’s left of my humor after ‘guess I’ll just die’ jokes but it’s worth a shot.
Personally i went from “guess I’ll die” jokes to “IF I HAVE TO BE HERE FOR 5 MORE MINUTES I PROMISE YOU I WILL BUY JUST, AN ARRAY OF CLOTHES.” and other wild hyperbolic stuff. Just replace the death part with something ridiculous and off topic. Its very entertaining
This also works with calling myself things like stupid, worthless, trash, etc. Even if you do this jokingly to yourself, your brain still believes it, and keeps up the cycle. Seriously, I found that when I stopped saying these things about myself, even jokingly, it made a massive difference.
Here’s a tip I picked up from a friend that’s helped me a lot — replace self deprecating jokes with ironically self aggrandizing jokes
Like every time I trip and fall, instead of saying “l’m just a disaster human” I say “I’m the epitome of grace and beauty”
Or like, when I draw a picture I’m not 100% happy with, instead of saying “my art is trash” I say something like “you know I think it’s time we replaced the Mona Lisa”
When you do that you get to make a joke, but you’re ALSO getting practice building yourself up, y’know?
And eventually it becomes a reflex and you get so used to it that you can say nice stuff about yourself even when you AREN’T joking
Rebellions are built on hope 