Interesting questions, Charlie!

I was a precocious kid. Very imaginative, creative, high-spirited, good at just about everything I tried. Mostly happy, too, until my folks split up and I hit puberty and everything fell to pieces.

As to preferring myself without hypomania, well, I don't really know. I haven't got a good enough handle on what's "normal" and what's not, at least until it gets really obviously not normal. When I have days that I think might feel "normal" I generally like myself - I'm still smart, productive, and capable. I might like that version of me even better if I got to stay that way for more than a few days at a time and could get used to it!