"If you do well, people get jealous. If you do badly, people laugh at you. If you stay the same as others, people ignore you. Do you change who you are because of people? No. If you change, you are not you anymore, you become a leaf blown away by the wind from the mouth of people who do not know you, do not really care about you, and are very busy for their own self interests."

The prodigy's hair is sticking up. As he strolls into the tiny kitchen...Sho Yano is met by the disapproving eyes of his mother, who quickly pats down the errant patch of black hair. Moments later, he grabs the brown-bag lunch she prepared, jumps in the passenger seat of the family car, argues with his 7-year-old sister over which classical music CD to play and heads off to another day at the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine....since he was a toddler, Sho has been exceptional, shocking primary school teachers and his parents with his uncanny ability to absorb all kinds of information. As a young boy, his IQ measured above 200, putting him well into the genius range.

[read more From "Boy, Interrupted," by Meg Sherry McBreslin, in the Chicago Tribune]