Reading and writing are a great passion for me, and if I had $10 for every time other accomplished or aspiring writers have said "I always wanted to write", I'd be laughing all the way to the bank. Voracious readers, they'll have spent many happy childhood hours creating stories. So how come I avoided reading whenever I could and I never wrote anything down unless I absolutely had to? Despite the fact that I have a fertile imagination and have always loved a good story, all my life reading and writing have been associated with feelings of guilt, shame, confusion and humiliation. But all this changed when I discovered something that made me feel like I was walking into the light from a long tunnel for the very first time. I was euphoric as I …show more content…
I couldn't expose myself to the ridicule of admitting I had problems understanding written texts or dealing with numbers; and the elaborate masquerade continued. Until, that is, I came across a book titled "The Gift of Dyslexia". I was intrigued because I had always thought of dyslexia as a learning disability but as I began to read, I discovered a complete and accurate description of... me. Lights were flicking on in my brain as the realisation dawned. I no longer had to search for excuses because I had an explanation. Not only was I not stupid, I was a genius for getting this far. I had developed complex and effective coping strategies that had allowed me to function. I had positively thrived, against all the odds. There's nothing wrong with my brain, it's just wired differently. Information has to be reprocessed into a form that I can understand.
This exciting and liberating moment heralded a change in my whole outlook. I heaved the monkey off my back and began the slow climb out of the world of guilt and shame. I discovered that Albert Einstein and Winston Churchill had been dyslexic. I discovered that many successful entrepreneurs and business leaders, such as Richard Branson, are dyslexic. They tend to be maverick. They don't