I never really believed I could do it. As a young child, I was consistently told that I was "gifted," but as I grew older and school became harder and more complex, that changed to being consistently told that I was not living up to my potential. I couldn't understand why I kept trying and failing even though I had always been told I was smart. My teachers expressed frustration that I wasn't working hard enough, and my parents encouraged me to care more, even though I felt so lost at school and didn't understand my future via academics. Eventually, I reasoned that maybe I had once been considered gifted, but that was by a metric that no longer applied to me as an adult. I dropped out of college, where I felt like I didn't belong, and began a happy decade-long career in the culinary field under the belief that I was "not that bright." It was not until I was in my 30s and had my first child that I began questioning that logic. A complicated birth led me to seek psychotherapy and a support group for birth trauma survivors. I then realized there was a piece missing from my past as a student. I underwent neuropsychological evaluation and was diagnosed as neuroatypical with several learning differences and dysthymia, a persistent depressive disorder that I've likely had all my life and contributed to my low self-esteem. I had always admired the field of psychotherapy but never thought I could have the intellectual ability to complete the schooling required. After brushing against my mortality during childbirth, I thought, "maybe I'm smart enough to get my degree, or maybe not; either way, I owe it to myself to try." I enrolled in an online program through The City University Of New York system, and I am deeply proud to say that I now have a 4.0 GPA and am well on my way to completing the bachelor's that I never thought I could and applying for a graduate program next year. It has been a lot of work managing school and being a new parent. Still, I am honored to model to my child the importance of believing in oneself and accepting and celebrating your differences to achieve your learning and professional goals. My experiences of the disconnect between being told I was a gifted child and the emotional work required to understand my strengths as a capable and thoughtful adult are part of the reason I hope to pursue licensure as a marriage and family therapist. I know firsthand how easy it is to want to support someone you love without understanding what they need, as my devoted parents did. I don't think it's enough to place opportunities in front of intelligent children to use to their advantage a holistic understanding of personhood and life experiences as an essential part of family support. It would be a deep honor to help families achieve this for one another.