A Curse or a BlessingThis is a featured page

A Curse or a Blessing I never thought that a simple white piece of paper could give me such a sense of fulfillment. I have chosen, because of the beauty that the meaningfulness of this paper brings to my soul, to display it among the other artistic beauties in my collection of priceless art. I have received many complements from friends and family regarding my art collection. Nobody seems to even notice that simple white piece of paper, among a sea of my children’s drawings, held by a magnet to the refrigerator door. To many it is just a piece of paper, computer readout of someone’s grades from last year, and holds no meaning or value, but to me it is a daily reminder of overcoming a lifetime of struggles, pain, and frustration that plagued me throughout school. I have had to work extremely hard to battle living with Dyslexia and ADD. The struggles came as early as five years old, inside the walls of elementary school. This was my first experience with embarrassment, frustration, and cruelty. I was so excited to embark on the beginning of my school experience, but instead I was introduced and shown a world of heartache and embarrassment. I can still remember like it was only yesterday, sitting in the first row of my first grade class and patiently waiting for reading time, and when my teacher called my name, “Mindy, you need to go to the LRC room to do your own reading assignments, and the rest of the class will continue with the book we are reading.” I didn’t understand, but the rest of the class sure did and erupted in laughter. I rose to my feet, walking to the door, feeling my legs trembling, and the waterfall of tears poured down my bright red face. As I entered the dreaded LRC room, I saw nothing but the plain dingy white walls, a room with a few, ugly and vandalized, worn out desks, and the stern expression on an unhappy teacher. I remained in that ugly room for the next two years at reading time. I believe I was reading the same colorless book all those years, the words changed, but the story always seem to have the same lifeless meaning. By second grade, my family had moved and my parents thought that it might be helpful to repeat second grade and get a fresh start. They were right; it was helpful, for at least a small fraction of time. Until I went from being known as the slow child, to being known as the disruptive child, that did not try, or so my teachers inform my parents that year. I was actually called a somewhat satisfactory student with unsatisfactory behavior. Instead of being sent to a tiny room, I was now usually in the back of the room facing the wall. Middle school proved to be more of the same, except by this time I was beginning to understand most of the schoolwork. I would go home and do my homework for hours with the help of my parents. The assignments would take a long time and the struggles remained, but I was beginning to at least memorize the word and the meaning behind them. When I would get called on in class, I always had the same response, “I didn’t know we had homework” or “I thought it was due next Monday”. My teachers really were not buying into the excuses that repeatedly poured out of my mouth. I knew then, it was time to go to the Problem Solving Room and write why I did not do my schoolwork. What they did not know is that my complete homework rested in my black and hot pink backpack too intimidated to come out. My junior year in high school changed my life. I met one person who saw right through the disruptive, unsure, scared, and embarrassed little girl, who sat in front of her everyday as she taught pre algebra. She ask me to stay after class one day and in complete shock I happily said,“ Yes” in disbelief that I was not ask to go to detention instead. Her voice was soft and kind as she asked if I’d ever been tested for learning disabilities. I was shocked due to the fact I was 17 and this was the first time a teacher had asked me that. The next week I sat down for two days of testing. My blurry overstimulation eyes started at those tests so intensely and I tried harder than ever before to do well on something. It was Wednesday afternoon when I received the answers I had been seeking out for years, I heard the word Dyslexic and ADD flow out of their mouths. I remember a wave of calmness and hope flow through my body, for this was the first time I could understand why I was struggling all these years. After receiving this information, I was dedicated to adapting new strategies in learning. I was improving my grades and the frustration was being replaced with the desire to learn. As I walked down the aisle draped in a maroon and canary robe to receive my maroon cardboard folder containing proof of the end of my high school experience, I realized that all this work had paid off. I was both proud and relived to be off this rollercoaster ride of school. It took me 10 years and three children to regain the drive and courage to embark on another journey through school. Walking into a new building with a new attitude, I can now embrace this experience with hope and dedication. I already knew my final grades and how well I had done, after all I am ADD, so when I went to print out my grades it was just to show my parents or maybe to save as a reference . I really don’t know why I was compelled to print it out that day and I don’t know what I was expecting if, I was even expecting anything. I do know one thing for a fact and that is what did happen after the printing had finished and as I held that simple white piece of paper in my hand, looking at the results of a year of my hard work, and what I was really seeing was a lifetime of struggles, pain, and frustration being overcome by the true meaning of that simple white piece of paper, my current G.P.A., a 4.0


No user avatar
mindykrieg 		Latest page update: made by mindykrieg , Dec 3 2009, 3:14 PM EST (about this update About This Update mindykrieg This is about my struggles and successes in school - mindykrieg

1091 words added

view changes
- complete history)
Keyword tags: None
More Info: links to this page

Threads for this page

There are no threads for this page.  Be the first to start a new thread.