Over the last 2 years, I have been researching the giftedness literature and contacting gifted experts trying to make sense of what is going on and how we can best support our son. During all this research, I had an a-ha moment and thought, ‘Wait a second, I think I might be gifted, too. This sounds a lot like me’. It all explained so much…and then I discovered InterGifted … and Jennifer Harvey Sallin … and all of you. It feels like discovering a long, lost family you didn’t know you had. People who nod when you explain things rather than look at you like you have 2 heads. People who have been there, done that. People who cheer you on and support you, rather than shake their heads, thinking, ‘Yeah, okay…you think you’re special. Right.’ All that to say, I am so grateful for this community and to be here learning from all of you. I hope that I can offer support and encouragement in return, as well.

I feel such profound gratitude for having become part of this group that is exactly like another member worded: like an overdue family reunion. I broke contact with the larger part of my family of origin, and have all life felt so in need of kindness and support and the gentle softness in which I could spread my wings, not just be a one-way adviser, one-way conveyer of love and knowledge and for some the sacrificial lamb. Having deeply meaningful conversations here or by other means with members of IG fills my heart with such joy. I can finally let go of all the shame over not finding what I needed, not even daring to admit how much I need and how little I found outside myself. It really hit me when reading Jennifer’s article on high+ giftedness: the always sooner or (very rarely) later being confronted with the limited mutual interest, understanding, intensity span or any other mutual field of anything meaningful I’d be looking for in others. Jennifer describes it so accurately as “just getting started” and the other just wanting to get out of the intense contact. There wasn’t very much reason for celebration of life before, even if I kept lighting my candle for me vigourously and in spite of what I saw in the world outside me. I’d like to give you all in IG a thank you hug for being who you are and sharing that with me, and making me be more and more OK with who I am.

I’ve been involved in gifted education for over 20 years. As a personal passion and to facilitate my work with gifted students, I’ve done extensive personal reading and studying about the social-emotional aspect of gifted. Still, finding IG and interacting with the leaders and members has been an unexpected kind of homecoming. To be able to talk about my own giftedness openly and without apology has brought about a whole new level of awareness. Because I can mention something I’m observing or experiencing or puzzling over to the group and be pretty much guaranteed that someone will relate to or support me, I find myself actually feeling and experiencing things more deeply. I think this is the result of not having to distill things down to language or experience that everyone will understand with the typical alternative of simply keeping it to myself. On a daily basis I am probed by members to ponder a question or idea that is new or from a perspective not yet considered. I feel like, in this secret world, I am invited to grow more fully into all that I am meant to be.

InterGifted has made a huge impact on my emotional life. I feel significantly less lonely, not to mention my self-understanding continues to grow as I learn about my gifted self.

IG has been a lifeline for me. I was going through severe existential depression when my friend suggested I contact InterGifted. Through coaching and the community, I have found hope again. I finally see that there is a positive side to my giftedness, and I’m excited to see how I can develop a better relationship with that previously hidden side of me.

Finding InterGifted, my InterGifted coach and the peers in IG’s community has changed my life immensely and started a process of transformation for me that I could have never imagined. I am becoming happier, healthier, more productive and creative, and more confident in using my giftedness as a strength rather than seeing it as a weakness. The future looks SO much brighter than my past, and now that I have true peers to share my growth with, everything is accelerating in hugely positive ways!

The friendships I have made via in the InterGifted community have been some of the first true friendships of my entire life. I had gotten used to keeping myself small and tame, quiet and introverted, even with people I considered my close friends. I used to think of myself as a total introvert. Since joining InterGifted, I’ve discovered that it’s wonderful to connect when people get you, and when you can be your full self with them! It took me a while to feel comfortable, but once I saw how open everyone is in this community, I felt safe to explore and express all that I’ve been keeping inside for a lifetime. I’m still surprised to see what a different person I’ve become thanks to simple friendships with other gifted people like me!

Thank you for starting the entire IG group. After reading members’ stories and comments, I’m feeling more hopeful and validated than I have in years, literally!

Words cannot say how InterGifted has changed my life! Since discovering my giftedness six months ago, Jen and InterGifted have helped me to understand what’s been going on in my mind all these years. I finally feel a surge of hope when I think about my uniqueness, as opposed to the sadness and loneliness that it used to trigger in me. Interacting with the peer community here and receiving coaching has helped me to translate what is true about me into what is beautiful about me. Instead of spending the second half of my life feeling as lost as I have for the first half, I now see who I am and who I want to become, and for the first time, I have begun to enjoy the journey.

Intergifted is one of the best things that ever happened to me. And when I say that it can save people’s lives, I mean it in the very literal sense of the words. Through IG, I learned that I am not a weirdo who doesn’t fit in, but a person with different views on things and a good personality, which I first had to fully explore to finally find happiness with myself and live up to my full potential.

Thank you for creating such a great website full of helpful resources for gifted adults, and especially for hosting communities for like-minded people to interact. A gifted mind can be both a great blessing and an isolating curse, and it’s a comfort to connect with others who understand.

I come to IG’s peer group for recharging, insight, connection and inspiration. The sense of community is unlike any other…it feels like home. I particularly love the outpouring of genuine love and heartfelt, non-judgmental support and understanding extended to all who are struggling with some of the many difficult challenges associated with giftedness.

This InterGifted community has reduced my feelings of loneliness. I have not been literally lonely but there have been, and are, very few people who communicate on the same level. I have always thought it was my fault and I should somehow change myself. I have thought I should be less interested in everything and less enthusiastic. Thank you for creating this community.

InterGifted has been great for me because it has allowed me to cope with the fact that the vast majority of humans are not my community. A lot of us here have a different relationship to ‘people in general’ than normal folks, and the farther you are on the graph the more that is the case. I can understand them, and relate on a basic human level, but it’s not reciprocal and I enjoy deeper relation than that. I connect to humanity more than to people and a lot of us are that way. Attempting to focus on my similarities with others has often lead to confusion and anxiety, because the differences have had far more of an impact on my life than the similarities. Focusing on my differences has lead to self understanding and releasing the need for non gifted people to understand and accept me. I’m not searching for what I have in common with everyone anymore; I’m searching for the people I don’t have to try so hard with. I love humanity deeply but do not have a strong underlying sense of community as a whole, and moving away from desiring one is what has been (finally) saving me from the pain of giftedness.

It’s nice to talk about giftedness without anyone acting surprised by it. Talking about it like hair color or eye color as part of a bigger, more important picture is so…stress-relieving.