21 Years Wasted

I woke up this morning in tears. I dreamt about all of the times my life was much harder than it had to be because I was an undiagnosed dyslexic. It does sound overly dramatic of me to whine and complain about "all the wasted years," but it is hard sometimes to not look at it that way. It is hard not to think, "What if I had been diagnosed in first grade?"

All of those memories that my subconscious brought forward in the wee hours of the morning involved former teachers. Memories like my fifth grade teacher holding up my spelling test in front of the class yet again because I got every word wrong. Or my high school math teacher, when I approached her thinking I may have dyslexia, said to me that because I had never been diagnosed by a doctor that I obviously did not have dyslexia. 

I am one of the lucky ones. I have been informed that most people that have to wait this long for a diagnosis have a lot of self-esteem issues as well as other problems. I struggle with self-esteem some, but not nearly as bad as others. It is only by the grace of God that I was able to make it through 21 years of ridicule and disgrace because of my undiagnosed learning disability. 

It is time to let go of the bitterness towards ignorance. I need to be more focused on educating the masses. So here it goes...