One of the most precious words of wisdom my grandmother always said to me was, never give up, do not let others beat you down, and reach for the stars!
Due to my extreme prematurity, developmental delay, and learning difficulties as far back as preschool, my township school district came up with noting my student file and IEP stating “Other Health Impaired.” It took years until the truth came out just before entering 12th grade, what exactly my disability was, and what I have is a “Processing disorder, Learning Disability, and Dyscalculia.” For those of you who are not familiar with Dyscalculia, it is a specific learning disability with math (like Dyslexia but with numbers and calculations). During my entire school years, I was placed in a self-contained special education class and hidden away from the mainstream students. I took the small yellow school bus every day with countless rude remarks from those same students.
In my second year of High School, I was convinced by my case manager to attend Vocational school (to learn a trade) and be part of the super senior program (you can attend school until the age of 21, I stopped attending at age 20). I selected to take courses in business technologies, multimedia, and quickly became interested in photography as well as creative writing (during my regular high school classes). My last year of Vocational School for some reason, it was recommended for me to take introduction to Culinary Arts. That was a huge mistake because I was put with students that had discipline issues. You can use your imagination on how I was treated in that class!
After Vocational School, my parents tried finding services to help me find a job. I was placed with the Division of Vocational Rehabilitation (DVR) and that was a complete disaster. All DVR could do for me was either provide training with a job coach (with Arc) working at well-known convenience stores, grocery stores, and retail centers either putting clothing on a hanger, packing bags, cleaning up at coffee counters, and cleaning CDs at a local library, etc. I knew I could do more than that. Finally, it was my parent’s accountant that gave me my first real break and job as a part-time paid summer intern working as their receptionist/office assistant. I did GREAT that summer and continued until November!
Within a short period of time, I was offered my current part-time position as a blogger. I also assist with social media updates, and research special guest speakers for our Education and Advocacy department. Most recently, I have also started my own photography and multimedia business. I sell my landscape and nature photography on canvas prints and have my work printed on greeting cards. I also create photo montage videos as well as I started photographing various portrait, business, and dating app photography. My first art show exhibit will be in December at the Ocean County Library in Lacey, NJ.
I can only say this…do not let your disability stop you from succeeding or allowing you not to do things you enjoy or may enjoy doing. I have learned to embrace my challenges and issues. Knowing how I need to learn and challenging myself, I adapt how to achieve the skill needed to obtain the correct outcome of my tasks and projects.
Therefore, to all of you sitting at home not knowing how to rise above your disability, my suggestion is “think out of the box.” There is something you can do to achieve your own success within your limitations and use your strengths to compensate what you may not be able to do well. Sitting at home and worrying what the future may bring, will get you nowhere!
Source of Information: Personal experiences
Until Next Week, Stay Safe and Well!
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