Hello readers! Today i will be talking about a learning disability thats called dyslexia. Dyslexia is a learning disability characterized by trouble with reading despite normal intelligence. Different people are affected to varying degrees. Problems may include difficulties in spelling words, reading quickly, writing words, “sounding out” words in the head, pronouncing words when reading aloud and understanding what one reads. This disability is genetic & can affect the way a person does math too.

Now I wanted to bring this disability to the for front as I am a person who has Dyslexia. For me I always new I had something. Growing up from kindergarten-6th grade I was terrible at school. I would fall behind, was lazy and spent most of my time dreading school like the plague. Everyday at school I was forced out of my regular class to be in this “other” class with like 10 other kids where we learned things at a slower pase. Math was like the end of the world for me and to this day I still am on a 4th grade level in math. Reading, spelling & writing where terrible which got me disinterested in reading at all unless they were audiobooks. My spelling was the worst and I would flunk every spelling test given to me. It wasn’t until I was in 6th grade that my teacher figured out that something was wrong and got the admin to send a specialist in to give me diagnostic tests. From those test me and my family learned that I had dyslexia. It was the best day of my life!

Finally there was a reason for all my failing grades, my disinterest in school, my difficulty in reading & math. I had a learning disability and from that day on I used my diagnosis to the fullest and used all the help I now got to my advantage. Now of course it wasn’t over night that I was cured after learning of my disability. Middle school did get easier for me as I got to be in team taught classes with a main teacher and a teacher for the “special Ed” kids. I got all my test read to me as I learned I was an audio/visual learner and I got to have special class just for studying & homework help.

I can admit life got a little easier and I felt a little more confident about my disability. Then high school came and math got harder, the books got more confusing and it got harder to remember facts in classes. There were times I would get down on myself and think I was dumb because not everything made sense to me. There were moments I though I’d never graduate high school yet I did and it was the happiest day of my life!

Once I was out I was free. Free from all the pressure, all the stigma, all the teachers trying to teach me but me still not understanding things. I was out and free to do whatever I wanted. So from there I joined AmeriCorps and did 10 months of national community service which did me well. Then I came home and joined the work force. I worked for a non-profit in DC for 3 years and in the process even went back to school community college that is.

Now when I was a kid I was always writing short stories based on history. But once I had to write in school with all those writing rules my taste for writing went away. It wasn’t until I took writing classes in community college that I rekindled my love of writing. I then started to take journalism classes and love it. I know have a blog and love writing more then ever.

I am over coming dyslexia everyday it’s something I live with and will live with forever but it’s what makes me me and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Now I have herd that have dyslexia can make other parts of life hard. For me giving change with money scares me as I’m never sure if I’ll short change a person due to not know how much to give back if you give me a 20 & you need 13.50 back. Also at times my left and right get all jumbled up and it can be a little hard to remember which is which. Oh and directions are the worst if not for GPS I would be lost everyday. Oh and of course test. I can’t take test to save my life. I have test anxiety and it sucks. I can never get a good grade on a test first time around no matter how much I know the material.

Anyway even tv shows showed dyslexia students and people dealing with the disability. Take Jordan Catalano from My So Called Life the charming, hottie who played in the band and was everything to one Ms. Angela Chase. But when Angela writes a note about him that gets into his hands when confronted about it he says he didn’t read it which leads us all and Angela to speculate that he couldn’t read it. (That explains all the missed classes and non-interest in school.) Jordan tries to deny it but later in the show ends up getting help for it by getting a tutor.

Then there’s Ryader from the later part of Glee. Star food ball player, handsome, good singer but terrible in school. This leads Finn to see that he might have dyslexia and for him to go get help. When he does things get easier for him to figure out.

Even take the early Degrassi episode where Liberty is said to have dyscalula the math version of dyslexia. This should you that even super smart people like Liberty can have a learning disability.

But the most iconic episode of a show was on the Cosby Show in 1989, the first time any show had ever done a episode on dyslexia. Theo had dyslexia and didn’t find out till college. Knowing that he had this disorder helped become a better student and when he starts to teach kids later in the last season he comes across a boy with dyslexia that he tries to help who is hesitant at first but comes around to Theo’s help.

Dyslexia might be a little hard to deal with at times but it’s what makes me a unique person who just sees the world in a different way.

So to get a clearer picture of what dyslexia is here are a few videos to understand it better.

PS- If your being bullied for having dyslexia just remember that Albert Einstein, Orlando Bloom and Fonzie himself Henry Winkler all have dyslexia. A famous scientist, a hot actor and a famous TV star.

Movies & TV of people with Dyslexia:

The Cosby Show

Shake it Up

Dyslexia the Movie:

Dyslexia Ted-Talk

Whoopie Goldberg:

Henry Winkler:

Steven Spilburg:

Orlando Boom: