I Am Resilient.
I was not always a sharp reader or a talented writer. I still would not consider myself one, but my current grades give me confidence that I am somewhere nearby. Many called me slow, others called me lazy. My mother did not know what to do with my 8-year-old self who did not know how to read or write. I always felt something was wrong with me. As a child, you cannot express your emotions clearly or articulate how to convey feelings. My mother realized I had not been faking it when I would read aloud—constantly stuttering, fumbling over the words on the pages, reading apprehension, etc.
Eventually, she enrolled be in the infamous speech therapy, in hopes that would help, which it did. After my successful class of reading, my speech was better… somewhat. As time went on, my notorious struggles seemed to have doubled. Reading simple sentences from the American Constitution in Civics class was adequate but explaining what I had just read was where I struggled. Senior year of high school brought challenges I was not prepared to face. Some teachers even lost patience when teaching me and ultimately gave up. In a way, I had to be my own teacher some of the time. My classmates often helped me and would blame the teacher for my misapprehension. Although that might have been true, deep down inside, I only blamed myself. No one could fix the disability I manifested except myself. Fear of failure gripped at my strive for success. But I took my grades very seriously and I worked extremely hard for them, through which my actions cultivated a desire and passion to achieve ideas beyond my reach.
A’s are to be earned and that was my adequate standard. I became strikingly diligent with my work and meticulous with studying. Although I was striving for good grades, what I did not realize in being harsh on myself was I became my own worst critic. What I would accomplish was not good enough. The harder I pushed myself, the less confident I would become in my schoolwork, which took a toll on my physical body and mental health. Being dyslexic taught me many things, for example, to make average grades I would have to work twice as hard as everyone. Now, I do not consider myself to have a disadvantage. I work diligently and efficiently for my grades. It may take me longer to achieve what others can, but my effective determination will help me get any job or task done proficiently.
Even though I struggle many times in life, one of my passions is helping others. Helping one another and showing kindness to everyone restores humanity and gives hope to those in need. When I witness an individual struggling with similar issues as myself, I cannot help but attempt to involve myself. I understand the difficulty of bearing a disability or a problem.
Through my own struggles and hardships, I have found that helping others helps myself. I would like to believe that I was born to help others in any way I can. I have been called a “natural-born leader” since I was merely a child. If I were given a disability to help and understand others, I would gladly do my part and be a “natural-born-dyslexic leader.” Dyslexia does not define who I am as a person but rather has taught me perseverance, patience, resistance, and compassion. Because of this disability, I am resilient. Living with dyslexia makes life challenging, but what is life without a challenge?