Nationally Ranked Tennis Player (Canada)
DII Tennis Scholarship Recipient
Published Author
Artist
For most of my life especially my school years I had this weird feeling of not knowing why I couldn’t understand things that others did so simply. I always wondered if I was some weirdo or just stupid, or in the best case some alien haha. I failed English twice in college and barely passed in high school and still didn’t understand why this was so difficult for me and what was going on. It’s not like I wasn’t trying either. I would do the assignments as best as I could but they always were returned all marked up with red of errors from the teacher’s corrections.
I also had a really hard time remembering things; my friends would always recite lyrics, quotes from shows, or talk about all sorts of random things such as sports and so on. Even there I was always out of the loop cause I couldn’t remember or retrieve information fast enough and therefore never had much to say and even if I did, it never came out very coherently as grabbing the correct words on the spot is a real challenge. It’s also very tricky to firmly stick with a certain viewpoint on a subject as with this way of viewing the world offers many perspectives and therefore leads to much confusion.
Even with all this evidence I still didn’t understand what the issue was and nobody really clued in either, so I just tried my best and somehow eventually graduated from University. I got a degree but felt like I came out with very little.
Luckily, being emersed in sports helped. They kept my focus and helped me to stay positive and keep going even when times were tough.
It was only until like 2 years ago when my sister sent me a text saying, “I think you may have Dyslexia”. She started looking into it on her own because she felt the same way, school was a really big nightmare for her as well, along with all the other social challenges that come with being dyslexic.
Here is a short list of challenges that I have noticed within myself:
-A difficult time associating words with what they are meant to represent
-Hard to articulate what you mean
-Can’t remember things or at least bring them back easily
-Always viewing a situation from a multi-perspectival view and therefore not being able to stick with just one way
-Not being able to relate socially with the average person due to verbal deficiencies (word recall, pronunciation, spelling, etc.)
-Being more empathic and therefore being drained of energy more easily in social environments.
-Need to experience things and not just be told with words as they mean very little
Anyways, am not writing this post to let you know how difficult life is while being dyslexic, more so am writing this to just let you know that more and more resources are becoming available for people who live life from this reality. Furthermore, the number of people who are successful in this world because they see the world from this way is quite unbelievable. Dyslexia isn’t a disease, it ain’t even a problem, it’s just a challenge and that is mostly because of how our system of learning is designed currently, and that can change and will when more and more people realize that dyslexics have a unique way of viewing life, which is more holistic.
If you are feeling out of place because this is your reality as well, look at the bigger picture cause firstly, you are not alone, and you are not defective. You are actually given a very cool opportunity to see the world through a different lens.
It is also possible for you to function in this world, you just need to be creative in the way you take on life, and lucky for you that is one of our strengths.
It’s time to open up and power up and use our difference to create a different world.