Okay

#1 I turned gifts into skills.

#2 Not true for me.

#3 Encountered it and broke through it.

#4 Unhealthy skepticism seems to be what you're writing about. Healthy skepticism is testing it out by following a hunch, for example.

#s 5 and 6 good ones.

#7 I saw (see) groupies aka fake friends almost immediately. Lucky I guess.

Excellent one!