Hi everyone,
Im a 16 year old male living here in St. Petersburg, Florida.
I am actually from Europe, moved to the U.S. in June of 1995.Coming here was very scary but it was a dream I always had to come to America. I arrived on Delta flight 257. The major problem was at that time that I did not speak any english. Added to that, I just came from a country in Europe where I lived in a war for a full year. One word really describes me at that time, I was emotionaly terrified of everything, I was scared to get in a car, when I saw cops I would shake thinking they were communist soldiers. Let me not even forget my sleeping schedule was of the normal road. Month passed and Im aready in elementary school. First day of school, my headache was so bad that I felt like it was going to blow up, was crying and missed my country. About 2 or 3 months into the school year, one day all the sudden something just happened in my mind, all the sudden I just blossomed in my english skills. The teachers thought I was the next Einstein, for me I just saw that I had broken that wall in between me and the American kids. In middle school, I had OK grades, still in ESOL (English Speakers of Other Languages). In seventh grade the Spanish teacher asked me why I’m not taking spanish as my foreign language. I gave it a thought for a few days and rejected the idea, I just wasn’t ready to do that. Following year in eighth grade I took Spanish 1, really enjoyed learning the language, to my surprise it wasnt real hard as long as I did my homework each night and was in class daily, which was not my problem. I passed the class with a B average. As it got towards the end of the year, I noticed some little clues every now and then. I could not tell the difference between “b” and
“d”. My name is Slobodan, couple of times I remember noticing writing my name on paper I would get real confused and hard to understand and know what “b” and “d” were, I didnt know the difference between the two. So I said to myself, thats just because Im tired. Again and again the same problem kept reoccuring, plus in math class when it came time to take notes for example; the teacher would write 9 on the board, and I would write “R” for 9 on my paper. That scared me to death, I thought I was insane or something. Till this day, I still have the same problem happen to me almost each day in math class. In english class I always get terrible headaches, nausea and dizziness. I find it real weird. I just love to write, and my career goal is broadcast journalism. But yet I write words backwards, most often the word “saw” I write “was”.It just makes me feel stupid, I dont think its because I know 3 languages. In english I love to read especially when the teacher needs volunteers to read, she always chooses me, I have good pronounciation just like the other 99% of the American students in class. But yet, I would read the whole story and get confused with characters and have no clue about what I just read. My brain just cant summarize it.
Just yesterday I underwent tests, finally the diagnosis is Dyslexia. It didnt make me feel mad, sad or anything, I felt sort of happy to tell you the truth.
Before that I did my own little private research about Dyslexia online, and in 1997 when Ennis Cosby was murdered I read all about his same problems that he had in life, but he saw it in a positive way, which he has made me learn to coupe the same way. He is my role model that I cant see through my eyes, but I see in spirits, Ennis is my inspiration. Just like he said tests in school dont reflect his knowledge personaly. Talking about tests, in school tests are what counts the most towards my grades. I study real hard and try every possible strategy.Homework is not even a relection of the grades that I get in many of my subjects. If the grade depended on only homework and classwork, I would at least get B’s. With the tests’they knock my grades down so deep that I feel like there is no use to do homework since I have to do well on the tests and a letter to my parents each time I fail a test. The letter is about “Why did I receive a failing grade on the test”. I have folders full of those letters literally for each test I took, I failed.
I Just felt like I needed to type up my thoughts and personal experiance.
S. juric
St. Petersburg, Florida
Your thoughts are well expressed and you deserve to be proud of the many challenges you’ve successfully met in life.
Have you considered speaking to your school guidance counselor or school psychologist about your difficulties with reading and test taking? If you were found to have a real learning difference such as dyslexia in one of its several forms, you would be entitled to certain accomodations when you took tests.