college success stories

Hi Veronica,

My name is socks,okay this is my screen name,but noone would know me by my real name in cyberworld. Anyway,I am dyslexic I was diagnosed in Kindergarten,spent many years trying to learn to read and write,doing a much beter job of it lately. I am a pediatric nurse,have spent the last 17 years working with children who have some type of develpmental delay,either by physical reasons or cognitive reasons. I love my job,and I am very good at what I do,my disability defines who I am,makes me better at a few things,and makes me work harder a few more,it doesn’t define who I wanted to be,that was all up to me. I made my enviroment,as you will will make your’s. Good Luck to you. :wink:

Hi Socks,

Is it you from Tampa? Did you receive our email regarding your account password? It’ll be strange if you still can not login as “socks”.
From our location, we don’t have any problems loging in to your account with the login name and password that we sent you. So please try it and
keep us informed of what happens to your account.

Regards,
LD OnLine

I tried actually to log in and couldn’t do it? Yes,I recieved your email. What it keeps saying is sorry this username has already been taken.

Socks,

Thanks for sharing. I hope you continue to enjoy your job.

Veronica

It sounds even stranger!

It should only say “this username has already been taken” when you try to [b]register[/b] again with the name “socks”, not when you log-in.

We tried to log-in from different computers, at work, at home, using your login and password, and didn’t have any problem at all.

So maybe you should try that too, find a different computer and log-in.
At this point, we’re afraid that we don’t know any better to help you. Sorry Socks!

Sincerely,
LDOnLine

Socks,

I know this sounds dumb but bear with me.

When I sign in with the “Log in” option in the upper right hand corner of the screen, bgb works. When I forget and try to post, it comes up with the user name and when I put bgb THERE I get the notice you posted. Are you trying with the log in BEFORE you try to post?

Veronica,

I have a four year degree and passed the Certified Public Accountant exam the first time. Only 20% pass the first time. It took my “normal” husband five tries. I think I did so well because when an LDer learns something, they really learn it—overlearn it in fact.

My first job as a CPA was a disaster. I was fired.

Then I found this job in industry. Initial I kept the books. I was good at it and liked it. After years the company grew and grew and I got away from keeping the books and supervised others who did. I was ok at it but didn’t really enjoy it. Over time I learned that I was really good at explaining the reports to upper management and training new people in. With my companies blessing, I now do that almost full time. Others supervise. Everyone wins.

As socks said, with time we find the right environment.

Good luck on YOUR jouney,

Hee, well…

Maybe I should mention that it took me five years to get that four year degree…

Barb,

Thanks for sharing your story.

Veronica

I finally did it!! :oops: I had the wrong password,I think…. Anyway THANK YOU guys!

I am a 5th year senior majoring in occupational therapy. I am gettin ready to graduate thank goodness. I have a 6th grade writing level and ADD. while i never struggled much in highschool, college has been an absolute nightmare with all the papers etc. Through a diagnosis, a great counselor and even more understanding professors, I love my fieldwork of work and they appreciate my creativity, and spirit that comes from my struggles and my “difference”. Good luck to you. while i admit to have struggled some lately it has been well worth it and the reward is even sweeter than had i not struggled with the issues i did.
ashleigh
([email protected])

Benfielda,

Thanks for sharing your story. Good luck to you.
Veronica

Hey Veronica,

I know this is months after your initial request, and it is unlikely you will receive it, but I thought I’d send something anyway. With appropriate accomodations, encouragement, and a lot of hard work, I made a 4.0 as an undergraduate. My dream was to become a physician. Well, here I am, my third year of medical school, at a school that’s “ranked” as one of the top ten medical schools in the country. My patients love me, my attending physicians consistantly give me exceptional evaluations; however, over the past 3 years, I have had an extremely difficult time dealing with the dean’s office. They still won’t offer me the same testing accomodations I received as an undergraduate…and everytime I ask for it, they get upset. I have done well on around 50 exams; however, last fall, after running out of my medication and a few other difficult circumstances, I was not able to finish a 300 question 4 hour exam in the allotted time, so knowing that I had only completed 50%, initially, they had told me that I would be able to get additional time if I needed it, so I asked for it, and it was denied…I crossed through my answer sheet and wrote, “do not grade”.
I retook the exam on my meds, with enough sleep, and the addition of a midway 5 minute break and scored in the top of my class; however, I was placed on probation for failing the first time and acting inappropriately the second time. Recently, after 10 months of successfully completing exams, I had difficulty finishing yet another exam — this time I was dismissed. I am currently appealing the dismissal. During my appeal, they are allowing me to continue my education. Please pray that I will do well on my exams this next week…I need miracles down here…

In spite of all this, please be encouraged, I KNOW that the state of our minds is a gift from God; often times, our greatest strengths can become our most prevalent weaknesses….we must continue to persevere, knowing that we are who we are for a reason, regardless of whether or not it is obvious in the immediate present, it will be more than evident one day if we maintain focus (yes, focus with ADD is possible, in fact, hyperfocussing can be achieved with practice)

thanks,

spaceman

(that’s what all the kids used to call me during elementary school…it hurt a lot at the time because I was embarassed when I realized I hadn’t heard something someone had said….but now, as I said before, I am realizing who I am, and what strengths I have.)

You go spaceman :-) It’s a powerful thing to turn a weapon against you into an asset.

Keep chipping away at these guys, & hang in there…

Spaceman,

Thanks for sharing your story. Good luck to you.

Veronica

Hi, I have not graduated yet but have overcome a couple bumps in the road in college.

My first semester was a disaster. I didn’t study or take my medication and thought I could get straight A’s easily, like high school. Well, my philosophy 101 class was an A, but the other 3 courses were D’s and F’s. My gpa was 0.7.

As an embarassed student after my poor performance, I decided to listen to the doctor, take my medication (adderall) and see the university student accessibility center for guidance. The result for my second semester was a 3.1. Last semester (6) I earned a 3.5 which was my best to date.

For my first two years I had no idea what I would be in life. I just took courses that sounded interesting and narrowed my choices down to two: comparative literature and geology. I am starting my 7th semester now and about to declare a geology major and all the classes I took prior to this semester fulfill my general education requirement classes and electives. There is a long road ahead of me but when I think back to my first semester, I’ve come a long way. There were two paths I could have taken after my first semester and think I chose the right one.

Before reading this I really didn’t think that people with ADD could succeed in life. But, it is great to read stories of people graduating from college, grad school, medical school, and afterwords, getting good jobs, because it proves that we can succeed. Great post!

Thanks for sharing your story.
Veronica

Hi, my name is Dan, I just signed up for the this board a couple of days ago. I’m a 20 year-old junior at Loras College in Dubuque, IA with a non-verbal learning disability. I think I’m doing reasonably well in school, but living in a dorm has been quite and challenge. I’m about a year away from a BA in math. I just thought I’d share that.

Dan

Dan,

Thanks for sharing your story. Good luck to you!

Veronica

Socks — good to see you again!

If you look around on the website, you will find an oprion that allows you to be signed in automatically every time you open the site. As long as you always use the same computer and nobody else does, it works great now. I’m using this option since my computer got its brainwipe and reprogram, which is why you’re now seeing my real name again.

Although your posting was from ‘03, I am interesting in speaking with you for some research I’m attempting. See my posted advertisement:

SUBJECT: VOLUNTEERS NEEDED FOR RESEARCH STUDY. Ph.D. student seeking adult volunteers (aged 18-50) who have dyslexia, to participate in recorded telephone interviews to describe the emotional/human side of living, and coping with dyslexia. Interviews will be approximately 45-60 minutes, scheduled at your convenience. Participants may remain anonymous. For more information, please email [email protected]

Would you be interesting in speaking with me about your successes and struggles with dyslexia?

Robin,

I have a learning disability but I do not have dyslexia.

Veronica