Apart from two periods of intense study, of music between the ages of 12 and 14 and of mathematics between the ages of 14 and 16, I coasted, daydreaming, through most of my school years.
The one indication that I got that I was doing the right job in Bosnia was that at different periods of time all the factions came down very hard on me.
My weight fluctuates, and I haven't always been skinny. I became curvier in my twenties, but I never felt self-conscious about it; going through different periods is all part of being a woman.
Of course there are depressing periods when nothing appears to be happening. But whenever anything was happening, and even when nothing was happening, it was fun just to do phage experiments.