Imagine having to read in front of your class, but being lost for words because you don’t know some of the words on the page because you were born with a disorder. This image I just put into your head is just one of the hundreds of times this has happened to me at school. Not being able to read or spell correctly is an average day for me or anyone who has dyslexia. It’s very embarrassing because everyone expects you to know what the word is and how to say it, but if you don’t, your judged as stupid or dumb. In this spiel I will be talking about how I have dealt with the storm of dyslexia, how spell check is the best thing that has ever happened to people who have dyslexia; having to read out loud, and my work ethic to becoming an average reader.

I would like to formally thank whoever created spell check; without spell check I would have got a fifty percent on all my writings. Spelling has always been the hardest thing for me to do in school because of my dyslexia. Spell check is the reason why I prefer to write on a computer rather than paper. The reason I enjoy writing on the computer more is because I have the reassurance all my words make sense and are spelled correctly. Every time I see the red underlined word it just reminds me you made a mistake and you need to correct it. Spell check also helps me learn how I need to spell the word the correct way, and what I did wrong if I made a mistake. In a way spell check is my umbrella; it really keeps away the rain also known as my mistakes.

For whatever reason I was born with something wrong in my brain where words just don’t “click” (that’s how I like to describe it). I found out I had the reading and writing disorder in 3rd grade. From then on I would forever have to work harder at reading. Having dyslexia was the first real challenge I faced in school; before school was pretty easy math came easy, and I understood the things the teacher was teaching. Being diagnosed with dyslexia was the first rumble in the storm, from then on I would have to work extra hard to improve my lacking reading skills. I would end up taking alternate classes in elementary school, and working with my mom on a reading workbook; these were some of the things I did to get better and cope with my learning disability.

Popcorn reading was the death of me back in elementary and middle school. The teacher or student would call on me, immediately I knew I was in for an embarrassment. I remember one time having to read in science class and not being able to say the would “sprouted”. I could hear all the kids whispering and I could feel their eyes beating into my soul; I felt like an idiot and I knew my class was thinking the same thing. This is one of the many bad experiences I had with popcorn reading. It’s like a flower in a storm- it keeps on getting hit by the rain, but when the storm is over, then you see growth. Even though I did not enjoy popcorn reading at all, I belive it did help me grow as a reader because it gave me confidence when I did read the correct words on the page fluently.

Dyslexia has made me stronger as a person; It has taught me how to grind something out even when it gets tough. Another thing dyslexia has done is shown me the more you work at something the better you will be. I had to practice and practice to try remember some words I had struggled with, but now I know, I understand a lot more words than I used to. In the end I will always have this lingering learning disorder but it won’t define me, it’s how I responded that is the way I will be defined. My learning disability will forever be a storm I’ll have to weather with.

This is a letter to the editor submitted by Ayden Sand, a junior at LHS.