The best thing that ever happened to me

PK Koduri
PK Koduri
Aug 27, 2017 · 3 min read

I follow Sir Richard Branson’s on LinkedIn. I especially appreciate his posts that talk about his own experience with Dyslexia and the impact it had on his life and business career. After reading several of his posts on this topic I am inspired to share my own experience with this condition. I grew up in India and got a traditional “English Medium” education. Teachers were not equipped to identify students suffering from learning disabilities especially Dyslexia. I am not sure if things have changed much since then even though awareness seems to be on the rise. I fall somewhere on the dyslexia spectrum and had trouble with reading, writing, spelling, math — pretty much everything that would give a kid nightmares and cause physical distress. In fact things got so bad that my parents thought changing schools would make it better. However the test results were so bad that I was offered admission on the condition that I repeat 3rd grade.

Things didn’t improve much but something started happening that was nothing short of a miracle. A young and highly educated couple leased the first floor of my parent’s house and in due course started taking interest in helping me. Soon my neighbors started doing the same. Soon I had someone tutoring me in reading, math, science, and languages. My grades started improving but I still struggled in school. After three years I finally had a breakthrough. After 5th grade I went to stay with my cousins for the summer. One thing about Indian summers is that there is nothing you can do between 10AM and 4 PM due to the intense heat. To kill time I started working through 6th grade course material with the help of my cousins. I figured out workarounds, mnemonics, and other tricks to remember what I learned. By the time summer break ended I was already half way through the course material which set me up for my first success. A few weeks into 6th grade I came in second overall in testing to the shock of many in the class including the teachers. Some called it a fluke and some even accused me of cheating. That only made my resolve stronger and since that day I spent every available minute reading, learning, practicing. I supplemented class material by watching educational programming on TV (Thanks University Grants Commission UGC) and reading text books imported from the Soviet Union (They had some outstanding books in Physics and Math). A few years later I landed a spot in one of the elite engineering schools in the country to study Chemical Engineering which then paved the way for me to pursue graduate studies in the United States.

To someone that doesn’t know the back story I am just one of the many immigrants to whom math and science come easy. Little do they know that I am like the duck that is effortlessly gliding on water but frantically paddling away below the surface. Nothing comes easy to me. I spend a lot of time preparing behind the scenes learning, researching, testing new ideas on friends and family. One benefit of a dyslexic brain is the ability to see patterns and connections that others miss. It allows me to think non-linearly and process thoughts in the background leading to some interesting insights. However there are times when I get frustrated for not doing a good job communicating my ideas. They sometimes fall flat and go nowhere. But when they hit their mark and lead to a successful campaign or presentation the high I get is just too much to put into words. That’s what propels me and makes me wake up every morning looking forward to what’s next. Don’t know where or what I would be doing if I didn’t receive the gift of an extra year in 3rd grade. I believe that extra year helped me mature and learn to make Dyslexia my friend rather than fight it. That was the best thing that ever happened to me!

)
Welcome to a place where words matter. On Medium, smart voices and original ideas take center stage - with no ads in sight. Watch
Follow all the topics you care about, and we’ll deliver the best stories for you to your homepage and inbox. Explore
Get unlimited access to the best stories on Medium — and support writers while you’re at it. Just $5/month. Upgrade