When I was in fifth grade, a teacher told me that I might never learn to read. At that time, I could identify and understand individual words, but I could never string them together. I hated school and felt out of place every day because I was so behind. Teachers told my mom that I wouldn't try and that I didn't want to succeed.
But it wasn't that at all-I wanted to be able to read and I wanted to be able to write, just like everyone else. I always told my mom I just wanted to be normal. But by age 10, I was beginning to accept my fate that I would never be "normal" and would never do well in school. I was diagnosed with every imaginable social and learning difference: ADD, ADHD, dysgraphia, dyslexia, and autism. And for a while, I let those labels define me.
All of that began to change when I met Ms. Copeland the next year. She pulled me aside and told me I was too smart to not be able to read, that everyone who said otherwise was wrong, and that she would help me. She was the only person besides my mom who had ever told me I was smart. My mom always pushed for me to have every service I needed, and I started seeing a tutor, therapist, speech pathologist, audiologist, and neurologist. I was dealt a hand I didn't like, so I devoted myself to changing it. I went to school every day at 7 in the morning and went to tutoring or therapy every day until 5:30 in the evening. These therapies were my only activities, and I didn't have time to play sports or hang out much with other kids. But slowly, with my speech pathologist, I began to build my vocabulary and my comprehension. She changed the whole way I looked at what I could do. I walked into her office at a first grade reading level and walked out five years later reading at a college-ready level. I will never be able to thank the people who were part of this journey enough; it's always been a team effort.
After all these people had been challenging me for years, I felt it was time to challenge myself. I started at a new school and signed up for Honors English. (I not only passed the class but got a high B.) After years of feeling isolated while constantly in therapies, I wanted to become more social, and I decided to join my high school's water polo team. This was a great way to immerse myself into the school. My new friends and I became interested in gaming, and this interest has evolved into working with computers. I'm currently working on my Microsoft Office and Adobe industry certifications. I am also now taking more honors classes in English and history.
Life has never been simple for me, and I have accepted that it never will. But everyone in my family seems to live to be about 100 years old, so I like to think I have time to do everything! I am grateful for all the experience I have gained, even when it was very hard, and especially for the people who saw the potential in me. Now, it's time for me to do my part, and I have begun volunteering with organizations like the Special Olympics and Best Buddies. I like working with kids who have some of the same learning and social challenges I faced, and I enjoy sharing my experience with them. I want them to feel they can be as successful as I've been, and as successful as they want to be with no limitations. I think it's time that students who are diagnosed with "varying exceptionalities," as I am, become the students who have exceptional success.

Remember you can do anything if you want it bad enough.