It was during a period of psychological and aptitude testing in the orientation to my freshman year in college that I realized that I could not picture things in 3D. I could not picture a shape from another vantage point in my mind. This is a serious handicap for a furniture builder.
Over the years, I have dealt with it and found solutions one day at a time. As a contractor and in my career as a furniture maker, I have learned to draw a piece from many sides, or, more prosaically, simply to walk around it. Rather than trying to figure things out mathematically, I have measured and fit pieces into their places.
The solution I wanted was to one day find out how other people did this. Instead, I have had to deal with it (and the mistakes it led to) one day at a time. This is the other way for most of us. We want a solution, but instead, we find a way. Whether our issue is cancer, alcoholism, or sexual abuse, we deal with the scars each day and find a way.
The real gift, I have come to believe, is the determination to continue looking for the other way.