I love storytelling. I started telling stories before I could remember. Before I could write, I would dictate stories to my mother to write down for me. By the time I was nine years old, I was writing story after story. However, when I moved from being homeschooled to going into a public school, I quickly realized that the struggles I always had with reading and spelling put me further behind than I had ever dreaded.
My first six-week report card was practically all Fs and Ds. Students often would make fun of me for my awful reading and spelling by speaking extremely slowly to me and calling me names. Teachers did not have any expectations for me academically, and they sometimes told me that I was not smart enough to participate in some activities.
Though my grades steadily improved and, in middle school, I eventually achieved all A’s and Bs, I continued struggling with reading and spelling. I did not think I was smart. In fact, if you asked me, I would have told you, "I am hardworking and unintelligent.” In addition, my writing fell by the wayside as my homework, with what felt like endless amounts of nearly indiscernible words, piled up.
It was not until 7th grade that I had an opportunity to start writing stories for Writing Club with a reading teacher of mine. In this club, he propped up my writing by reading my work and giving me actual feedback on my stories; during his class, he hung up my story assignment outside his classroom on the bulletin strip for everyone to read. He was the first teacher who recognized I had a gift for storytelling.
In a perfect world, this is when I would magically undergo a transition and really apply myself to reading and spelling. Through sheer effort, I would become good, or even excellent, at reading and spelling. Yet, that never happened. I was already trying my very hardest. To this day, I still struggle with reading and spelling. Due to a reading-based disability, I most certainly always will. Nevertheless, a magical transformation did happen in that classroom in between and within the phrases hastily jotted down. This experience slowly transitioned me into being a person with self-efficacy and self-confidence. At my hardest academic and career moments, it kept pushing me to keep persevering. Now, through determination and grit, despite and because of this learning disability, I will earn a Master of Science in Communication from Northwestern University and fulfill my lifelong dream of having a career in writing by becoming a dramatic writer.