Struggles and Failures with a Learning Disability by Taylor

Struggles and Failures with a Learning Disability by Taylor - February 2017 Scholarship Essay

Since the day I was born, I have had to work harder for things I wanted to achieve. As a preemie, my mom always told me, I would never give up, and would always work hard to achieve each milestone I wanted to accomplish. This has been the same routine with reading and comprehending the English language for my entire life. Each day, I have had to overcome many struggles and many failures to succeed. These struggles and failures made me work twice as hard as my fellow peers to understand and speak the English language correctly.
As early as I can remember in elementary school, I recall daily events that would challenge me. My teachers would give me a passage to read, often times I would ask myself, “Is this gibberish on colored paper? Should I know what this says?” They would later give me a comprehension test on the small passage on what I read and I would fail it completely. I would ask my classmates how they did, they would be getting 100%. My 1st grade teacher suddenly noticed something was very wrong. After many meetings with my parents, they started specific testing with the school psychologist. These tests determined that I had a learning disability. The results required the school to develop my IEP (Individual Education Plan). This plan made the learning process easier but my school life more difficult. I started to get assistance and help with reading. I would get tests read to me, word banks and extended time on tests, books on tape and assistance in the resource room. My academic confidence went up but socially, I felt different. Because I would be pulled out of room for this extra help, my peers started to notice. As I got older, I started to get called stupid, spaz and retarded because I couldn't spell a easy word or because I used “baby” words on my papers. These peers would, also, picked on me because I was put in separate classes where autistic kids were in to just learn how to understand the English language. As a result, I would always go last minute to these classes. I was so embarrassed. I begged my Mom to get out of these classes but she said it would benefit me in the end. I always asked myself, “Why me? Why do I have to go through this? Why am I different than everybody else?” One day, I decided that instead of drowning in my own self pity, I would persevered. I started playing sports. There I succeed and became a team leader. With this confidence and working twice as hard academically as my fellow students, things started to change. I learned how to study and what worked for me to learn new material. As a result, I have made honor roll each semester since I was in 6th grade and I am a participant in the National Honor Society, Math and Science Honor Society. I tutor elementary students in Math who suffer from learning disabilities and have become a Peer Counselor. As for the fellow peers who teased me, I know now that their opinion does not make a difference on what they say about me. It’s what I think that matters most.

By, Taylor Safford