We're all born with different gifts.
Reddit user, u/Faihus, wanted to know what's been giving you a leg up on life when they asked:
What unfair advantage do you have?
Physical gifts can give you the leg up on competition in sports, while a mental advantage can give you a leg up on being able to handle the stresses of this world.
Heightened Blood Powers
"I was born with a rare blood disease and given medicine cocktails the first 12 yrs of my life. Now my blood and hemoglobin can carry a crazy amounts of o2 for some reason and when I go for yearly check up the lab results look like I am blood doping."
"You could be an all-time distance runner or cyclist I'd imagine!"
Seriously, Thicker Blood?
"Back when I competed in sports in high school, my body developed polycythemia (a blood-thickening disease) pretty much never got tired. Thicker blood meant more oxygen to my muscles."
"From what I understand long-distance runners also develop this as well as people who live in higher altitudes where oxygen is thinner."
"I could wrestle pretty much non-stop. It was nice."
"Don't have it anymore though."
"Wait, so you can lose the condition? What happened?"
"For me, my Dr told me it was from extreme conditioning due to sports. My body essentially knew that I needed more o2 so it made my blood thicker in order to do it."
"Dr's told me to keep an eye on it throughout my life and overtime my red blood cells count has decreased. Almost 15 years later and my red blood cells are still thick but not too much more than the average person. Not enough to be concerned about."
"Edit: remembered it as size of red blood cells but it was in fact the amount of red blood cells my body produced."
A Solid Head And Solid Shoulders
"I have good mental health."
"My therapist unironically referred to me as "a golden unicorn, psychologically," which filled me with pride but I'd sound like an a-- if I were to ever mention it"
"Edit: For everyone asking why I was in therapy if my mental health is stable, I was undergoing a big life adjustment (my physical health is quite unstable) and wanted to talk to a professional about it. Like mental housekeeping. I saw my therapist for a few months and maybe a few times here and thereafter. I was lucky and privileged to be in a position where therapy was accessible to me, and despite already having good mental health, it really helped me adjust to living with chronic illness."
Count 'Em!
"I had a fast metabolism. Basicly ate all the junk food i wanted and still had six pack abs for no reason. Its faded away over the years though"
*side kick *side kick *roundhouse
"Very long legs, which give me a big range advantage in taekwondo. Oh you wanna get out of the corner? No f-ck you, side kick"
Thinking Things Through? Advantage.
"The ability to step out of a situation and think about it rationally, for some reason I can't bring myself to make a decision out of pure emotion, but that's something that a lot of people seem to struggle with."
Being better at something may not be inherent. Sometimes it comes from the people in your life giving you the advantage. However, sometimes doing something others aren't willing to do can give you that edge.
Unlimited Office Hours
I have 3 uncles that are teachers in the subject I'm majoring in so I have unlimited free tutoring
history?
Biochemistry
Both In Work And In Play
"My family is full of teachers, so I've always had an edge when it comes to education. Both my grandmothers were history teachers, one aunt was a math teacher for a long time, an aunt an uncle are university professors, and my mother has her MDiv and MACE degrees."
"Also, my dad had a high-paying job for a long time, so we went on lots of trips and I got to experience lots of different things. He got to retire early because of it, so I got to spend a lot of time with him my senior year of high school. In the same vein, I've never wanted for clothes, food, money for college, a good car, etc because of his job."
Breaking The Mold
"I'm an extroverted IT contractor. Most IT people are introverted."
"Businesses keep me on longer because I can make small talk and even socialise with colleagues."
"Yes, being an extrovert in a field dominated by introverts can be a huge benefit."
Everything On File To Call
"I have a near-photographic memory. Being an A student was pretty easy because I could remember almost everything I read."
Well, At Least You Admitted It
"White, 6'4", reasonably intelligent and born in the United States."
"I have it better than 99% of the world and I know it."
Really, the advantage in life starts at home. Having a stable upbringing, with parents who remain together, helping you with college or any sort of higher learning, can be a massive head start.
A Longstanding Family Life
"My parents have never separated and have the healthiest relationship I've ever seen out of my friends' parents."
"Word."
"I remember one time my dad took away a DS game I was playing so I snuck into his room to search for it and swap it with another cartridge. He had a random crap drawer with a bunch of keepsakes and stuff."
"I saw the game, but it was on top of a stack of letters. Turns out most of the big fights I could remember them having resulted in them writing these deep letters talking about their relationship, what they were sorry for, that sort of thing."
"Never told them about it, since I was technically snooping through their stuff, but it put their marriage in a totally different perspective to me. They had a lot more disagreements than I realized, but worked through them together."
"High school sweethearts and still going strong. I hope one day I have that kind of relationship."
Sort Of Feels Like Familial Jackpot
"born to a well off family with supportive parents in a wealthy country, no illnesses, no mental disorders, never had to face any social problems, my life is basically idyllic"
Escaping The Clutches Of Debt
"My parents paid for college, so I never had any student debt"
"My parents never saved for my college tuition but I was lucky to find & be accepted to a tuition-free college. I guess my unfair advantage is that I lived with my mom. Her income was low enough for me to be accepted with max pell grant but got to go on vacations with my dad who made great money."
Born In The Perfect Middle
"I was born rich enough to enjoy a comfortable life in an extremely expensive city to live in, but I wasn't born rich enough to be born to complete scumbags in a vicious social circle that's god damn rife with questionable ethics and social climbing. Because most of my friends are in the same situation or better, I have gained some insight on this f-cked up social environment,I have one foot in and one foot out so to speak, therefore allowing me to both see what goes on inside the circle, but also know that what goes on is f-cked up to the highest degree. I personally believe that I was born to good people who taught me that I was probably among the luckiest kids in the world and to be grateful for what I have. Anyways, sorry for the long post."
Be aware of the gifts you have. Look around and you'll see not everyone has what you have. Take it. Use it. Try to do something good with it.
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