It's Monday, a day off, to rest and prepare ourselves for another week. At some point this next week we have have an oral and a written exam for a book we've been reading. I'm not totally sure when it's gonna be but I'm personally not looking forwards to it, I think it's because of the challenge that this sort of thing presents me, which leads me into something that makes me who I am.
I'm dyslexic (moderate to severe), which has caused a few problems for me in the past. I'm not accusing anyone here, but over the years I've come accross people who have thought (and still do think) that you can choose to be dyslexic or not. I think that they think that I've chosen to be dyslexic to get the benefits that come with having the right paperwork. This is not the case. Being a dyslexic is just as much a choice as being able to choose the skin tone, eye colour and hair texture you're born with. I cannot suppress it, or deny it, like I would with a given emotion, because I have no idea what dyslexia is supposed to 'feel like'. It's just as much a part of me as any of the other strengths and weaknesses that make me who I am.
Dyslexia "is characterized by difficulty with learning to read fluently and with accurate comprehension despite normal or above-average intelligence. This includes difficulty with phonological awareness "(to do with sound structure of words)," phonological decoding "(to do with the systematic organization of sounds in languages)," processing speed, orthographic coding "(to do with the writing of a language)," auditory short-term memory "(or working memory)," language skills and verbal comprehension, and/or rapid naming "(to do with how fast someone can name aloud certain objects, colors etc)". In early childhood, early symptoms that correlate with a later diagnosis of dyslexia include delays in speech, letter reversal or mirror writing, difficulty knowing left from right and directions, and being easily distracted by background noise."* So because of this, you might be shocked that I'm so good at writing and that I love poetry and reading so much. The sole contributors to this love of liturature are my parents (who had me tested between when I was six and when I was eight), homeschooled me and thus allowed me to learn at my own pace. They never pushed me to start reading, but instead would read to my sister and me. I didn't start reading till I was about eight and half.
Dyslexia is widely misunderstood and more often than not, those with dyslexia are bullied in school, because their classmates don't understand why they can't keep up with the various learning stages, like learning to read and write. Over the years, I've learnt to accept having dyslexia, that it's not a weakness or a hindrance but a gift. Dyslexics are usually extremely gifted in some areas, like the arts, music and sports. Some of the greatest people in history, like Einstein, Bell and Da Vinci, were dyslexic. A lot of dyslexics never finished school, like me. Yes, I passed all the seven IGCSEs (Internation GCSEs) that I sat. The same story went with my three AS levels (year 12 exams). I chose not to finish my A levels.
The next time you hear that someone had dyslexia please don't look at them any differently. Put yourself in their shoes and think how you'd like to be treated if you were different to everyone else around you.
(*sighted from Wikipedia)