I've always done really well in school and knew I was "smart," but I never thought I was a "genius." Part of that is because on standardized tests I always scored at about the 98th national percentile. What I didn't realize is that I scored at the 98th percentile because I have a mismatch in cognitive abilities, and the tests did not have a high enough ceiling to measure my strengths. What this meant is that I would score as high as possible in tests measuring math and quantitative reasoning, but then I would "only" score around the 90th percentile on verbal sections, so my composite score would put me at about the 98th percentile. I recently found out I'm on the autistic spectrum, and this sort of profile of strengths and weaknesses is apparently the norm with people like me. Upon being given several other tests by the psychologist, I found out that even though my verbal ability is now at about the 97% percentile (I've improved as an adult), my quantitative/logical/pattern abilities are much higher, as high as the typical person with an IQ of 150-160 (SD 15), so about the 99.99th percentile.
All of this definitely explains a lot about my life, pretty much every part of it. Like I say, I knew I was "smart," but I didn't really understand how different I was. I'm now kind of at a loss and thinking, "Now what?" If I'm around 1 out of 10,000 in certain abilities, should I change my career? How am I going to find a spouse? Do I have a duty to use my abilities for the betterment of society?
I'm sure I'll get flamed for this post, but I'm genuinely wondering if anyone has thoughts on the matter.