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How I Learned to stop comparing myself to others, and just be me
Tom Cruise, Cher, Richard Harris, Richard Branson. The list is endless. All famous and accomplished people, and all of them are Dyslexic. I was driven to succeed, I worked so hard at everything I tried, but I failed at everything.
“They can do it, why can’t I, and I just want a stable job.” I asked myself this question my whole working life. I never had a steady job until I moved with my parents and siblings to Florida in my late twenties.
My parents encouraged me to get a security guard job. It was the last thing I wanted to do, but I was out of ideas so I did what they asked. I hated every minute of it, but I didn’t know what else to do. My self-confidence was at zero.
I never stopped dreaming though, but I was getting too old to try anything else, and after my mom died, my dad dissuaded me from trying anything else. It hurt him and my mom both to see me have so much trouble, but my mom always encouraged me to try.
My dad didn’t want to see me hurt, and it hurt him to see me fail. I stayed in that line of work until long after my dad died. I was homeless in Minnesota, when I was referred by my Psychotherapist for Neuropsychological testing.
The results of tests were revelatory. Right there in front of me was evidence that Dyslexia…
