How I did it: I did this by being a member of the gifted program in the Chicago School system.  At the time, if you were reading at the high school level or higher while in elementary school, you could qualify for enriched programs.  I qualified the first year it was offered, when I was 9.  As a reward for the "extra" work (we would read things like Beowulf while everyone else was working through their readers.  We had to do that as well, but....) we got to go to the Chicago Symphony four times a year and the Lyric opera annually.

Sep 23, 07:42PM PDT | 1 comment | 1 cheer