I had a plan for suicide when I was 12. What saved me at that time of my life, because my dad had a hard time with my neurodiversities, with accepting that. He was, you know, the father that didn’t want to have a kid that was different. I would learn later in my life in large part because he, himself was different and felt a lot of shame about that. And I know that my dad, my dad and I we’re not the only people caught in that dynamic. So, my father was always the guy like hey, buck up, work harder. I won’t have a lazy kid in my family. That kind of stuff.

And so, when I left school, me and my dad went to a baseball game, kind of a famous baseball game, ’88 World Series, Dodgers versus the Atlanta – the Oakland A’s, and I don’t remember the game. [laughs] What I remember is after the game we were in the parking lot waiting for the traffic to kind of go away and sitting in the car, and I had just left school, was struggling in school, and I was expecting a lecture, you know?

Like, hey, you got to buck up, you got to work harder, that kind of stuff. And my dad turned to me and he goes, ‘I love you regardless of how you do in school.’ And, you know, it saved my life. So, I wish I would have heard that sooner, I wish I would have heard that more often, I wish I would have heard some variation of that from more people.

And I wish that for all young people, who feel deficient, you’re okay as you are. That’s my message. But, I heard it better late than never with my dad and it made a profound difference in my life.

For more information about learning disabilities, please visit LDOnLine.org. This video was made possible by a partnership between the National Education Association and WETA.