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I did not believe that I was dyslexic until I was 35 years old. Before that time I knew that I did not read as fast as the other kids in school. I did not even read as fast as my younger siblings could. Many times I would read assignments and they didn't make sense to me. I didn't know that I was reading words like no and saw as on and was. That changed the context of the sentence and I couldn't comprehend what the writer was trying to say. I knew that I would have to spend much more time at homework and schoolwork than the other students around me. Math was difficult because I would visually put numbers in the wrong columns when adding, subtracting, multiplying, or dividing. In the 1960's we did not use calculators in school. I had to resort to drawing lines for columns with my pencil and then erasing the lines before I turned in my homework. My art always looked distorted. It looked fine up close but if you looked at it from across the room, it looked off balance. Sports was not an option for me as I tripped over my feet in gym and could not discern where a ball was to either step out of the way or hit it. Left and right were always a challenge especially if we were learning how to dance and we were given verbal instructions to go to our left or right. Musical notation jumped around on the page and I couldn't keep track of where I was while trying to play an instrument or sing. Through all of this my parents would not let me excuse myself from accomplishing what was set before me. I learned that if you worked hard at something, you would achieve it. I heard many times what Thomas Edison would say about perspiration and inspiration. I learned that if I didn't give up on a project, I would eventually finish it and finish it better than most people around me that did not struggle.

When I reached college, I knew that I could not take a full-time load of classes and expect to pass them with good grades. I did all my assignments twice to get them into my head. Memorizing anything was almost impossible. Learning to do things like type or play piano were discouraging to say the least. All of this and I was still able to receive my certificate as an executive secretary from the local community college. My college grade point level was something like a 3.8 or 3.9 at graduation. The highest level achievable was a 4.0 grade point average

By the time I started my first job after college, I knew I would just have to work harder than those around me. Fellow workers

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