By: Hailee Kwapisz
You can use it to propel you forward or keep making excuses.Having a disability is not an easy road; It is a struggle every day. I was diagnosed with dyslexia at a young age which has helped me come to terms with the negative outlook on it. Dyslexia is where one struggles to spell, read and write. No, the words are not flipped upside down but they are jumbled up in our minds. This is a struggle that most will have to live with forever. But I have never and will never let it be my downfall.
For the longest time I thought I was just dumb and slower than other kids. In second grade I had a very hard time learning how to read. I would pretend to read like the other kids but I actually had no idea what was on the page in front of me. It took me years to get to the same reading level as kids my own age. I had to take extra classes and take double the time on all my school work to just meet the same level of expectations. Some may see this as a huge burden, but in reality, it taught me more than any average school could. I used my struggles to make myself stand out and became a hard worker at a much younger age.
Just because you have something pushing against you, it should not hold you back. You should take the energy that is being used against you to push back harder. Many successful people are dyslexic; they have struggled with the small stuff but used it to enhance other characteristics of themselves that propelled them into the big leagues.
I have and will continue to struggle every day, but I will never let it hold me back. I will use the skills I have developed to move my career forward. This goes for all challenges we face as young people. Just because something is harder for you, does not mean you are dumb, it just means you are going to have to work harder at it than most people and learn in a different way. In the end, it will help you become a more well-rounded person.
Take your struggle, like I did with dyslexia, and use it to your advantage. It is not a downfall. It is a way to look at the world differently. We all know how important it is to be different.
