Published on 12, July, 2020
Just curious about people who slipped through the net, so to speak. How did you cope with school? I developed quite good ways of hiding how much i struggled. It helped that i was in most of the bottom sets, as no one really cared back then. I was in the top set for biology, i excelled in that area. Nothing else part from sport. I hated going in every day, i was like a zombie....i literally cant remember my last year in school. Ive blanked it out completely.
Primary: struggled to read because of my dyslexia. Always thought of as lazy although I was trying twice as hard as anyone else, spent playtime (which I hated) hiding in the bushes because I didn't get what the other kids were doing.
Middle school; relentlessly bullied for not sounding like them, being sqeamish, and afraid of so many things. School reports said I didn't mix, didn't concentrate (I so did). My head told me it was my fault I was bullied because I wouldn't "be like" the other kids. And when their bullying caused meltdown, he told my parents that if I were his kid he'd "give me a good slap". Then, I join the drama group. I was bloody good at it and started to mix with the drama set. Final year IQ test: result very high. Teacher's were gobsmacked.
Secondary: Rocky start. Still some bullying but I could loose myself better in a big school. Still into drama. Excelled in modern languages. Once my teachers started to see past the secretarial problems caused by the dyslexia, they started to appreciate I was in fact a grafter who could produce excellent discursive and analytical work. Got 8/8 'O' levels. Did 4 x A levels. By then they diagnosed dyslexia and no one called me stupid or lazy any more. The bullies grew out of their problems. I'd hung on against the odds to my true self. Some of them apologised to me and became my friends.
40 odd years and a clutch of post grad quals later, I get an ASD diagnosis. Hey ho! What doesn't kill you, makes you stronger. I built a career out of fighting for the underdog. And always will. I was sent those trials to make me a fighter. And I'll always fight.