I remember being told that negatively by my 6th grade teacher, either because I'd slip into daydreaming at the drop of a hat or I'd get easily distracted by anything going on around me.
When I was 13 I went to a psychologist to get all kinds of tests done at the children's hospital in Halifax, who said in a report given to my parents in secret (which I later discovered one night when I was in the house alone), that I seemed to be in a world of my own and sometimes didn't respond to the questions. And yet no one seemed to think for a moment that this was a sign of autism.
When I used to walk to school, especially in the spring or fall, I'd get completely mesmerized by the beauty of nature around me. How blue the water was, or the way it sparkled, or the fluffy white clouds, or even a robin singing in a tree, which I once pretended to have a conversation with.
And being a cartoonist, my own little world is frequently inhabited by my characters, so why wouldn't I live in it? If only there was a way to do it literally.