5 Child Geniuses Who Had Terrible Lives

There’s something about the insanely talented people that defies not only expectation, but known reality and in the best of ways. And it hits even harder when those people are children. Prodigies. I don’t know what it is, but to me, the mere concept of a not fully developed human being, that outshines its elders is simply fascinating, almost unreal, like something out of J.M. Barrie’s Peter Pan. We’d like to think that superhuman abilities as something akin to a gifts from God – a true blessing to the blessed ones.

Of course, reality has a way of rearing its ugly head and remind us just what’s the price of those blessings can be. Some of those gifted kids have known such hard lives, that I bet there aren’t too many folks who would like to switch with them, if they knew the score.

In order to illustrate my point, here’s five examples of prodigies and their life stories:

1. Sergey Reznichenko

Sometimes when mother Natures gives, she gives in bulk. Case and point – Sergey Rezhichenko. He mastered his reading skills when he was only two years old. Then, at 13, he grabbed the National spotlights in Russia’s version of “Britain’s Brainiest Kid” with pretty much everything he did and he could do a lot – poetry – check, math and science – double check. At 15, Sergey began his study in economics at Ukraine’s biggest National University. Seemed like everything was going his way. Except no – it wasn’t.

Sergey’s mom was a bit off. For one, she was a prominent member of Jehovah’s Witnesses cult. Two – she wouldn’t let her son socialize with any of his peers. That ended up playing a really nasty hand in Sergey’s latter life.

When he finally moved out of his house to go to college, away from his mom’s clutches, he couldn’t handle it and began using, and then abusing different substances. Little by little his new habit pulled him out of reality and into a world of perpetual gaming and anime.

Then in 2011, Sergey fell into depression, which later expanded to having delusions of grandeur and came to a point, where he declared that he’s a god, before jumping from a window. He died, succumbing to his injuries.

H/T – Source

2. Robert Peace

You know when someone’s special when his nickname from nursery was “the professor” and no one would bat an eye about it. One such exceptional individual was Robert Peace.

Born to a single mother, Robert grew up in Newark, New Jersey. His mom was always working, desperate to improve their lives, after dad’s imprisonment (serving a lengthy stretch for double murder). Her sacrifice allowed Robert to study, instead of work, resulting in him getting accepted into Yale, where he would go on to study biochemistry.

Money kept being a thorn in his side, so Robert starting moonlighting in secret. And while most of us would go for working in Burger King for couple of hours and during weekends, Peace had another, way more lucrative idea on his mind. He started dealing marijuana, then contunied on expanding his operation to growing it, using his vast knowledge of biochemistry. Little by little this little hobby grew to a full scale business, amassing the whapping $100,000 and this kind of money can only mean trouble. Instead of leaving the table while ahead of the game, Robert stayed in the business and ended up being killed in a drug-related shooting in 2011. He was 30.

H/T – Source