roller coaster

[Techdog]

I did an ADD self test again and scored higher. This brought back memories of school. In grade school I was often spaced out especially in history often answered a question with I don’t know. In high school started out in basic math and English then to an advanced level then back to basic. The easy stuff was hard and the hard was easy at times. Had a chance to go to Harvard but felt safer at home. Was offered to go to Oxford with my English teachers family he said I have a chance for great potential I was confused no one ever said this before. All because of rowing as my trainer said you could of been at the Olympics one day if you remembered to go to the meets.

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[blackdog]

For me, the easy stuff was always hard, the hard stuff easy. I remember when we did spelling tests I would always get the big words right and misspell the little ones. And anything that the other kids had trouble understanding I had no problem with.

It’s like that with everything. When I played video games I did better on the hard level than the easy level.  And when I try to cook an easy, quick supper it always ends up being an hour late. I did that tonight. I was just making quiche with frozen veggies on the side. Simple. Took me an hour to get it into the oven. I have no idea how.

There are times when I am so speedy I shock myself. And other times it’s like I’m stuck in quicksand. Sometimes it’s like I have the solution to every problem and other times I am completely stumped by one little thing.

That inconsistency is the thing that has always baffled me.

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[Rick Green – Founder of TotallyADD]

Techdog, I get what you’re saying about the easy stuff was hard, and the hard stuff was easy.

At university I barely passed the basic Physics courses like Electricity & Magnetism and Optics. But I soared in Quantum Mechanics & Relativity and in Astronomy. It was only later, after the ADHD diagnosis, that I realized, I had bored grad students teach the basic courses, and no one who is not interested in the material can make anyone else interested. Whereas the more advanced courses had profs who were really into the subject matter. And a passionate teacher makes a huge difference. And the other key? I was interested. It was challenging. It woke me up. Talking about time dilation, black holes, curved space… Wow!

(Do I remember any of it now? Uh, not much. But at the time I soaked it up. And since a lot of it was over my head, I was challenged.)

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[Techdog]

Rick did a teacher that made learning interesting make any difference it did for me. But often I had the right answer and still verbally gave the wrong answer. I often pondered this for days .

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[quizzical]

I agree wholeheartedly with Rick about the difference an interested teacher makes!

I got to thinking about my own teachers, classes, etc. Interestingly, some of the classes I liked the least were the small, seminar-type ones, where there are sixteen people sitting around a table, and there was a lot of group discussion. On paper that all sounds very engaging, but I hated it, mostly because I was painfully shy, and on top of that I was at an Ivy-league school and feeling incredibly intimidated most of the time. I would sit there bewildered and amazed that there were people who could think on their feet, who could respond to questions right then and there. Often there would be one or two students whose breadth of knowledge had them dominating the conversation, pulling connections to whatever we were discussing out of their brains like a string of magician’s silk scarves, red, yellow, purple, sparkling, flaming….”I find that in his earlier works – ”
And I just sit there and wonder HOW THE HELL DID I GET HERE and think I WILL BE REVEALED FOR THE FRAUD THAT I AM VERY VERY SOON…

No, my favorite classes were the lectures. I have to point out that this wasn’t so until I started sitting in the front of the class. In my first year I would hide in the back, and of course my mind would be drifting in the first five minutes. But if I sat in the front row, I was riveted, because those professors styled their talks to carry across a large space, and so the intensity level in that first row was palpable (and yes, sometimes that meant spit-flecks, but dodging them definitely keeps you awake!).

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[lsdcat]

@Techdog, thank you for mentioning that you often gave the wrong answer even though you knew the right answer.  I’ve not seen it addressed before.  There seems to be a disconnect between my brain and my mouth.  What leaves my brain is more often than not, not what comes out of my mouth.  This is distressing, often embarrassing, and leaves people with an impression sometimes totally opposite of what I meant.   Then there’s the impulse to explain and correct, and of course, confuse even further.  Communicating by writing is much easier than talking for me.

Now that I’m trying to pay attention, I have noticed that in the time it takes for the words to form from the thought, that my Editor is busy adding, changing, rewriting in the background. At this point, I’ve decided that when, if, I catch myself before I blurt the edited version out, I should clamp my mouth shut and say nothing.  That’s hard, since I go to sleep if my mouth isn’t moving.

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