The Gift of Dyslexia

So last night I won an award .... cant you tell I'm over the moon with this.... and I had to tell you 7 things about myself.... No: 2 was that I am Dyslexic .... Maxabella ask a few questions in her comment about this.... so I decided that it deserved a post ......

I'm not sure when it was that I realized that all the letters where jumbled up and back to front upside down and just basically messed up ... but I do remember the struggles I had in school.

When I was attending school the kid who couldn't do the work was the stupid kid, the one with the big D hat on sitting in the corner, they didn't test for dyslexia, not even if the problems seemed really bad.

Words and numbers always caused me a problem I would get them back to front, in the wrong order and English and Math were the bain of my life.

I always knew I wasn't stupid or slow, I always knew the answer to the question, I just couldn't write it down.
School didn't know how to handle this.

My parents hired a private tutor at one point in my school life.

I think it was lack of resources where the school was concerned, weather that be money, or just a lack knowledge that they didn't recognize the problem, and I know I wasn't the only one, there where other kids that I went through school with that had the same problems as myself..... but yet no one helped us.

Sad really, but that's just the way it was.

I didn't pass many exams, and if I did pass any believe me it was by the skin of my teeth.
The exams I did do well in where Arty subjects ...such as Dance, Fine Art and so on.

So at 16 I had been excepted into a prestigious Dance School in London, the only problem was I had to do my first two years on a foundation course doing A'Levels.

This was a joke to be honest, if I couldn't pass my school exams how was I ever going to pass higher education examines  .......

It must of been noticed pretty early on that I had problems...I hadn't entered this school through academic ability .... So I bet I shocked them fairly early on with my lack of skills ......

But again no one did anything I passed my A'Levels again by the skin of my teeth, and being a clever little thing I had chosen Art subjects .....

So when did they realized that I had Dyslexia ..... around 21 .....

I finished dance school and went into the family business which was hairdressing ... It was while I was in hairdressing school that a teacher asked me if I had ever been tested for dyslexia ....

I remember asking whats that ......I didn't even really know what the word meant.

So at the grand age of 21 I was finally tested for Dyslexia .... amazing really and it still shocks me that it took till I was 21 to find out why I couldn't read,write or do math.

So how do I cope with this...

Maxabella asked the two following questions.
"How do you manage to write so well, for instance? And does it freak you out a little that online is ALL words and letters?"

Well to start with it is sheer determination that I do what I do.... as far as blogging is concerned....

I found out quiet early on that I have an almost photogenic memory where certain things are concerned.

Example .... I can memorize streets where I live so I can find my way round ...
I wont know what a road is called (mainly cause I cant read the name of the street) but I will be able to get there from sheer memory if Ive done it once.

So where my computer is concerned I taught myself how to spell words by memory from where my fingers go on the keys I type without looking most of the time, Word by word I have memorized how to spell most words.... you might notice that I don't really use big words.... Im very basic in how I explain something...
Well I think I am.

I might want to say a big word but if I have not taught myself how to spell it I wont write it....another thing is I have memorized how most words should look when spelt correctly.

I have three spell checkers.... one on blogger one on the computer (its a special dyslexic one) and my husband.

The Internet was never scary really yes its all words but I have to say I love a challenge ....... and it has been just that .....

I still spell things wrong...My husband said he learnt to spell typonese before he meet me face to face (MSN messenger has no spell check)

One the funny things is I taught myself to spell want incorrectly and still spell it the wrong way now.... 
I always type wnat .... Amen for spell checker

Don't ask me to write you a letter.... me, pen and paper = what does that say.
My hand writing is very neat but I have only memorized words on a keypad

I read better now than I have ever done in my life, and I'm now 43 .....
There was a time in my life where I just wouldn't pick a book up.... but again I have made myself learn.... from sheer memory ....

Numbers are worse then letters.... I can do basic Math


For some reason I cant memorize numbers ..... and if you phone number was to be 123456 I would end up writing 342561 or something like that.....
I will hear the number but write it all in the wrong order.

So that's my crazy word with Dyslexia

You know .... you can do anything you want to do...if you really want it.

It is Flog Yo Blog Friday.... on Thursday ....

Join in have some fun and meet some new bloggy friends is basically the name of the game 

Dreams

Through out time men have aspired to greatness, but where does the greatness come from

I believe it starts with dream.
Martin Luther Kind Jr said " I have a dream" Have you ever read that speech ... ever read his Dream speech..... its a very symbolic speech, and as much as it was written for his people, it was written for all of us.... did he see his dream come to pass... sadly no but he installed his dream into others and they carried his dream .... even at times running with it.

Im sure Nelson Mandela had a dream, pretty much the same as Martin Luther King Jr's dream.
Mandela's words, "The struggle is my life," are not to be taken lightly.

No ones dreams should be taken lightly.

The dream may be as simple as seeing their child do a handstand on the front lawn.
That dream may be to build their own house, climb Mount Everest, dance on a table in a crowd room or just to go to the grocery store without all the kids in tow.

Whatever the dreams maybe  ......
The dreams are yours and if you aspire to your dream  ... your children will to.

Image c/o Organic Beauty Care

Reunited

It's funny that even at the age of 43, seeing my parents can bring out the child in me...

The inner child the one who just wants to crawl up on my fathers lap and snuggle,  the child who wants to follower her mother everywhere, and not let her out of her sight.

That has been me this afternoon, after nearly two years I got to see them again, the people who brought me into this world  ... brought me up to be a decent human being..... the ones who saw me through rough times cried with me when I cried, rejoiced with me when I was happy.

Its funny cause I have always been very independent, live on an island by myself type of girl.....
Never needed anyone... until the people nearest to me where not there.

I never imagined when I moved to the States, that I would miss anyone... I just don't do the whole missing thing.

When I saw them this afternoon I cried... cried on my moms shoulder... almost a sobbed

I realized for the first time in my life... that I had missed someone.