My vocabulary wasn't anywhere near Vijay's, but I knew enough that I could maintain my class standing as a high achiever. Every once in a while I tripped because of my haste, which was a problem that dogged me throughout school. It is funny, when I think about it, because anybody who knows me now would never imagine that I was once a schoolboy who was always in a hurry to do his work!
In the senior classes, English was taught by a guy who later turned out to be one of the only two teachers who slapped me hard. He has been dead for a few years now. They say one shouldn't talk ill about the dead. But, do people who say that know anything about history, where credit is given when it is due, and people and institutions are faulted when they need to be. My experiences are my personal history, dammit!
Anyway, it was in the ninth grade, I think, when in a Q/A that was an oral class activity, I don't recall what I said or did but all I remember is this master-slapper calling me "super sensitive."
What he perhaps did not know is that he was correct.
As long as I have been aware of the world around me, I have always been super sensitive.
I have also been described as a shy kid. And later, perhaps an introvert. A loner. A wuss.
A layer that makes all these more complicated is my level of empathy, which easily transfers other people's problems on to my mind.
Apparently all these together make me, in psychological terms, a Highly Sensitive person (HSP):
(I did take the self-test. And, ahem, off-the-charts, practically!)
- Wouldn't people prefer life without sounds of sirens, harsh bright lights, rough fabric on them?
- Wouldn't we want a life without violence and, therefore, wouldn't we want to avoid watching violence? Okay, Tom & Jerry is an exception to the rule ;)
- Wouldn't people like to enjoy fine scents, tastes, sounds, and works of art?
- Why would people not want to have a rich inner life?
- There are people who do not want their kids to be sensitive?
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