Further update on the world of superheros and the like

(the next chapter after revealing where Transformers live) Felix: Mum, I know how people become superheroes Me: Really? How? Felix: A B.I.G. astroid flies down and hits the people and they draw all their power from it and get super powers. Me: Well, that makes sense. Felix: Yeah, and there's different colours too - so some get blue powers, some get red, and yellow, and green... This followed a conversation where he informed me he wished he was Kody, a boy in his class who is gifted and talented (and no, not a diagnosed by pushy parents or gloating grandparents, just an extremely bright little button who was doing his 5 times tables at the beginning of the year - that is, the beginning of Kindergarten. At age 5.). When I asked why Felix said, "because he's really smart and knows what 10 plus 10 equals". I'm not sure I handled the rest of the conversation at all well, just reminding me of my own mother consoling me when I cried I wasn't as smart, funny, fast or pretty as every.other.single.person.in.the.universe. I said to him that when I was at school I used to get really anxious and worried because it seemed everyone else was better at stuff than me* - and that it took a long time for me to realise that whether I came first, finished first or got the top mark wasn't what was important. What mattered was enjoying and being part of the the process of learning, about having fun learning all the new stuff and not worrying about how good at it all I will be, then I found all these things I could do and was good at that none of my friends could do nearly as well as me. It was his interruption at * when he said "that's how I feel every day at school" that I think my heart broke. I heard it clinking into little bits. Finally I said that I knew what he was better at than anyone else, better even than Kody, he was the best at being Felix. God, talk about channelling my mother, and you know, I thought that was a suckful cop out when she said it to me. And yet, its so very very true. Sigh.