Dear Student,
You don’t know me but I know your struggle. I know how sometimes your hard work still isn’t good enough. I know the embarrassment you’ve felt growing up when you had to get extra help in school or when you failed a test that everyone else did well on. I know the pain you felt when all your friends made the honor roll but you didn’t. I get it, I experienced it as well and it was rough. We came home from school in tears, we got in trouble for the bad grades we couldn’t help, and we worked our butts off for that C average. Teachers told us we wouldn’t get in to college, but we did. The same teachers told us we wouldn’t do well in college, but we have. Generally for our entire lives, people have doubted us because of our disability. People have thought less of us because we don’t make perfect grades. We work just as hard, sometimes harder, than anyone else. We will do great things with our lives. We are going to change the world. Steven Spielberg, Henry Winkler, and Walt Disney had/have dyslexia. Ryan Gosling, Michael Phelps, Justin Timberlake, and Simone Biles have ADHD. Daniel Radcliffe aka Harry Potter has dyspraxia. All these people are some of the most talented humans the world has seen. They have taken the world by storm, disability and all! Recently, Olympic Gold medalist and member of the USA gymnastics team, Simone Biles had her medical records leaked to the public. These records revealed that Biles takes medicine for ADHD. After this was leaked, Simone tweeted:
“Having ADHD, and taking medicine for it is nothing to be ashamed of,” Biles said. “Nothing I’m afraid to let people know. Our self esteem suffered, we worked hard but it often went unnoticed by our teachers. Our teacher’s praises went to the kids who had the highest scores, because God blessed them with a talent for academics. We were being judged/scored with kids who had a natural gift for learning meanwhile we spent all of our time just trying to keep up. These same kids who had a natural ability were assumed to be leaders and of the highest character because they were naturally smart. Because of our hard work and struggles we see the world differently than everyone else. Some of us are impulsive, that helps us live in the moment. Some of us are hyperactive, that just makes us the life of the party. Having a learning disability is nothing to be ashamed of. Yes, it can massively suck and get in way of life. But it makes you special. It makes you unique, you are one of the world’s many peculiar treasures. Do not let people treat you like you are inferior to them, you are awesome.
Sincerely,
A student just like you