Am I Dyslexic or Not?

Some things I do online to make money can really test my patience.

If you read my stories, you already know that I try to keep several income streams. It just makes sense if I don’t work a nine to five but still need the income. Two or three hustles are better than one.

It’s not been easy. I try really hard not to let this stop me. Or even bring it up. But, the top writers all say,

Keep it real with your readers. Don’t be afraid to be embarrassed. Your honesty may help someone else.

And the fact I have it doesn’t embarrass me.

See, I grew up in an enormous family. There wasn’t enough of Mom and Dad to go around. It’s not that they didn’t try. There were eight of us kids. they just needed to stop breeding. But that’s another story.

When you have lots of siblings. Sometimes things fall through the cracks. For instance, when we moved to a new school when I was 14 if I ever missed a day of school, I was the one writing my excuse note.

Dad never caught it, even though he had to sign my sisters’ notes. He never once asked me if I needed one. So I got to skip a lot of school.

Another example is going to the doctor's office.

The first year of my son’s life, we were at the doctor's once a month.

Because I had lost my mom, I was insecure about what to do as a mother. At least half of the appointments were still necessary.

I can count on one hand the number of times I saw a physician while growing up: 4. Two of those were just physicals for school sports.

I know, I wasn’t their first rodeo. They had been through five babies and kids before me. They were not rookies. And I don’t blame them. Eight brats are a lot of kids.

But with all those kids, my illness or my disablement was missed. And I didn’t know that’s not how others read. I never got labeled, so I just went on and lived my life.

I messed up instructions or worked too slow. Took my time and read them through. It didn’t seem to help me much. Co-workers, husbands, and bosses would just roll their eyes and contribute to it being silly. Because I’m charming, my mistakes were overlooked.

Eventually, the places I worked would come to find me as their best employee. Because the repetitive action just became second nature. I had overcome a disability time and time again. Without even realizing I had done something extra.

Then one day after I won a cabinet in a raffle. I tried to install it by myself. Try as I may, I couldn’t get it. I just couldn’t understand the instructions. They were all backward.

Then my husband comes in and sees me crying in the middle of a mess. He comes over and toes the box and say’s,

Stupid instruction. Who could read them anyway?

Then he sat down and started reading them out loud.

Suddenly I understood. I remember seeing the words he used. They just were everywhere. Jumping from one sentence to the next. I couldn’t keep them in their places.

So later that night, I broke out Google. I realized I am dyslexic. When the time came to tell my husband. This was his response.

That sounds like the name of a sexy stripper.

But I got an edge. I never knew I was. I already had been working extra to get to where I am.

What made me decide to write this story and go back over it five times before publishing it.

Are all of these tests I have to take to get a job with certain companies. They do so vex me. They put me right back in the center of a mess on my living room floor. It’s like these people try to stop me. Scramble the words and make them mean something else.

I mean, most of them even give you the answer key. But when I try to reference what I read. The answers I find are always different from the correct answer.

Like they switched the answer when I wasn’t looking. Because I know for a fact, I just read that word for word. How in the world am I supposed to do this right if I can't even follow instructions.

That’s why I wish all instructional also came with videos. And why I don’t understand, why would your company make a how-to video if you will not tell your testers about it.

Video gives me something to reference in real-time. It makes it much easier to find the true instructional to follow. Because you have a subject performing the very task you're testing on.

The best tip I’ve found for someone out there going through this same issue. Is watching a video, and if you can’t. See if you can find someone to read the instructions out loud for you.

If you don’t have to concentrate so hard to keep your letters still then you can concentrate on the task at hand.

Okay, you guys know I hate the endings. So now I will just say goodnight, and thanks for reading.