Blogging: I know that it's been around for a long time. I've never bothered to read one, and I surely never thought that I would be writing one. I've never felt that I had talent when it came to writing. I've always been uncomfortable with the idea of trying to get my thoughts and ideas across to people through wrtten expression. I've always been self-conscious about having poor spelling skills, and reading skills for that matter.
My fears date back to my early childhood. I was labeled as a special education student. I couldn't read and my handwriting was atrocious. I'm 48 years old and I'm still haunted by my early school time experiences. The teachers didn't know what to do with me, or how to help me. I spent half of every school day in the special education room. I was socially promoted all the way through high school. I think about this quite a bit now that I'm older, it seems that I was given a C so that I could participate on the school's athletic teams.
My parents seemed to be the only ones invested in my progress. My mother took me from one doctor to another to try and find out what was wrong with me. I was given exercise to strengthen my eyes. I would spend hours lying on my back tracking a ball swinging from a string connected to the ceiling. I was prescribed bifocals when I was eight years old even though I had 20/15 vision. In the evenings I would sit at the dinner table trying to read, while my mother or father would dart prisms in front of my eyes. None of it seemed to help.
After I graduated high school I informed my family that I was going to go wrestle for the University of New Mexico. My father did everything he could to dissuade me, he knew that it wasn't going to be like high school. There would be no social promotion and he knew that I was destined to fall flat on my face, but as far as I knew everything would be the same. Some how I would end up with a passing grade.
As you can imagine that's not what happened. After failing miserably my first year in college, I was called to the Dean of Students office, he informed me that I would need to vacate the residence hall and that I would be withdrawn from the university. I begged and pleaded and was able to convince the Dean to give me one more chance. He told me I had to take and complete English 100, Math 100, and a special reading class sponsored by the university. He also made it very clear that any grade under a B would send me home.
That summer my father took me to see a doctor in New York City. The doctor diagnosed me as having dyslexia, he told us after extensive testing that I had one of the most severe cases that he'd ever worked with. He put me on a regimen of vitamins, mild stimulants to help me focus. For the first time in my life there was a reason for my issues. Up to then I believed that I was just STUPID. I started reading children's books that summer, I remember the first book that I ever read on my own was "Go Dogs Go" by Dr. Seuss
Long story short, I returned to the University of New Mexico and fulfilled my obligation to the Dean of Students with a great deal of help from my family and friends. It wasn't untill I was 20 years old that I was able to read at a 12th grade level for approximately 30 minutes at a stretch.
I graduated from the University of New Mexico after eight years of study with a bachelors degree in University Studies. I was 25 years old. I had made it through school and I had no intentions of ever going back. Now I find myself in school again having to face my fears.
I can't say that I've enjoyed this process of blogging but it is good to know that I can do it. Well, that's enough about me for one day.
As I was investigating Blogs on Wikipedia I came across an article called Blurring with the mass media. It echoed some of my initial thoughts on blogging. I viewed blogging as a way for people to push their views and ideas on the Internet. That they would be able to as the article states" get around the filterof the mainstream media." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog#Blurring_with_the_mass_media
I can relate to you, I had never read a blog and I had never made one. Blogs are hard to use, but I hope we get better at it as the time goes by.
ReplyDeleteIt is crazy that even with a persistent mother, no doctor could diagnose your dyslexia. Your story is very motivating, thank you for sharing!
Randall- You sure have overcome a lot to be where you are now. Good for you for not giving up! It sounds like you have a very strong support system in your family.
ReplyDeleteJudith & Judy thank you for your kind words. I've been very fortunate in having a supportive family. Even now a supportive Wife and Children.
ReplyDeleteIn the 60s and 70s dyslexia was not a common household term. Few doctors have even heard of it.
You are in inspiration!
ReplyDeleteWow! Keep up the good work!
ReplyDeleteI think you story is amazing and inspiring. This really shows me the power of will of some people. Even though you where faced with very hard challenges you still overcame those obstacles and got a college degree. The amazing part of this story was that you where able to overcome all of this while everyone was telling you that your chances of succeeding where slim. You did what you wanted to do, worked hard and proved them wrong. That is truly amazing and shows that if you put your mind and heart to it, you can accomplish anything.
ReplyDeleteWow. It took a lot for them to figure out that you have dyslexia. A similar situation happened to my uncle. He even had teachers calling him stupid. Now you teach, or are working on becoming a teacher? I know you will be able to help students at a much earlier age! It is sad that you had to go through that many years not knowing what was going on. I had some bad experiences reading in school as a child. That is part of the reason I became a teacher, to help others.
ReplyDelete