>> luis miranda: always. >> luz towns-miranda: from the time he was tiny-- >> luis miranda: always. >, miranda tested into hunter college elementary, a school for highly gifted children where, he told us, sometimes he felt like he did not belong. >> lin-manuel miranda: you know, i went to a school where everyone was smarter than me. and i'm not blowing smoke, i, my, i was surrounded by genius, genius kids. what's interesting about growing up in a culture like that is you go, "all right, i got to figure out what my thing is. because i am not smarter than these kids. i am not funnier than half of them, so i better figure out what it is i want to do and work really hard at that. and because intellectually, i'm treading water to, to be here. >> rose: so why do you think i'm sitting here talking to you and not sitting here talking to one of your classmates? >> lin-manuel miranda: because i picked a lane and i started running ahead of everybody else. so i, that's the honest answer. it was like, i was like, "all right, this." >> rose: "this" was theater. he was in practically every school pl