For the 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 6th grades, I went to the Mirman School for Academically Gifted Children. I had to take an IQ test to get in and be interviewed by a psychologist!

It was a truly unique experience, which, incidentally, left me completely unprepared for the harsher world of public junior high and high school, and led directly to my skipping the 8th and 9th grades, and ending up at Stanford at 15. Of course, at the time, none of us thought that our lives were unusual.

It’s been close to 20 years since then (I’m 28), and we’ve gone our separate ways. Nonetheless, I think that the roll call of our alumni and their doings since leaving Mirman show that 1) Yes, we were an unusual bunch, and 2) Success comes in all shapes and sizes. From entrepreneurs to chefs to singers to actors to animators, we’ve ended up living fairly unconventional but ultimately happy lives.