Andrea- What an insightful article! I agree with your thought that high school is a time for experimentation - more over, if there's one time in life when you can do something without being particularly good at it, it's during high school. Trying things is the best way to figure out if you like them. I have also heard from many adults that they wish they had chosen to go into a field that they really enjoyed, as opposed to one that they were good at - which touches on your other point. What's passion worth? I think that a little passion goes a long way. If you're not a particularly talented underwater basket weaver, it's probably true that you won't win the World Wide Underwater Basket Weaving competition; but if you can be happy without doing so, I don't see any reason why you shouldn't spend some time each week basket weaving. That said, I also agree with Ray (and you) that many students spread themselves way too thin (myself included, most of the time). I think that if you enjoy what you're doing though, that's really what it's all about. Though maybe it's 2nd-grader-esque, I think that if you like doing something you can figure out how to make it work, even later in life... Maybe being a coach of a middle school athletic team won't necessarially land you with all the amenities of life, but if you're really invested in being a coach you'll be happy without such things. Especially as "gifted kids", we have the ability to make life work out. Either that, or I'm way too much of an optimist.