Shiqaa Al-Ameeri
Dialogues
“Those who listen to the speech and follow the best of it. Those are the ones whom Allah has guided, and those are the ones endowed with understanding.” (Surah Az-Zumar, 18)
The gifted individual is one with a sharp intellect, often possessing keen insight and penetrating perception. He quickly grasps the nature, consequences, and repercussions of events unfolding around him. Yet, the gifted person may suffer and endure pain in every era and place, even if he prefers silence, perhaps withdraws from people, and avoids revealing his acuity and near-supernatural perceptual awareness. In today’s world, there is a price for every rare personal trait. Among the signs of the gifted person’s misery, and some causes of this distress, as well as how he can adapt to his surrounding circumstances in a manner consistent with his personal priorities and goals, we mention the following:
- Signs of the gifted person’s misery: A highly intelligent person feels a painful intellectual loneliness, either due to the prevalence of low quality standards around him or because his intellectual standards surpass the obvious decline he observes in his immediate environment. Unable, or unwilling by choice, to lower his exceptional level of thinking to accommodate what is simplistic, and being highly observant, he cannot ignore the intellectual chaos occurring around him, especially when it directly affects his life.
A scarcity of friends, due to excessive selectivity and the contrast between his sharp mind and the lethargy of his environment, accelerates the depletion of his mental energy. Time ages him prematurely; it is rare to find a gifted person without wrinkles that do not correspond to his biological age.
- Causes of the gifted person’s misery: Limited options due to family commitments, excessive rumination on all aspects of life, an insatiable thirst for knowledge, and the repeated necessity to deal with some mentally sluggish individuals. Additionally, the lack of high-efficiency life activities that could help rest his nervous system exposes him to pressures stemming from his excessively perfect performance.
- The gifted person and adapting to surrounding circumstances: The gifted person’s misery is primarily caused by his inability to comfortably harmonize with environments that contradict his ideas. Nevertheless, there will always be a glimmer of hope and a light at the end of the tunnel for him to possess the strong will to change the nature of his surrounding circumstances, ensuring his safety and enabling him to live a happy, albeit relative, life.
A Kuwaiti author
