I remember my first experience with school very clearly. I was 4 years old and sitting in a room with 5 adults. They were astonished at how well I could read, but confused why I would only write gibberish. “She’s writing backwards; she has dyslexia!” one woman exclaimed, as I watched her hold my white notebook paper up to a nearby mirror. The gentleman in front of me bent over and smiled as he whispered “You see the world different than everybody else, don’t ever change”. It has been 31 years since that day and I remember it like it was yesterday.
Fast forward to somewhere between 3rd and 5th grade. I’m in a parent-teacher conference at a school much too small with Mrs. Greene and my parents. Mrs. Greene was one of the nicest teachers; she had these amazing purple eyes that I was always mesmerized by. She says they’re contacts, but did we have colored contacts in the early 90’s?? Mrs. Greene thinks I’m bored and that I should move ahead a grade. I can tell that my parents don’t really believe her. “I want to do it. PLEASE let me do it!” I scream in my head, but I can’t get the words to come out of my mouth. Then I hear “we’ll need to think about it” which is code for nobody will ever talk about this again in my house. I’m disappointed and a little defeated.
My school career went on without much notice from anyone else beyond that last meeting with Mrs. Greene. I wanted to fly through the curriculum in class, but people were too slow. I was ambitious, excited, too smart for my own good, passionate and most of all: impatient.
By the time I was in 6th grade I was so bored with school that I barely bothered to show up. I would duck back in the woods after my mom dropped me off or sneak out during gym. If you have good test scores nobody cares what you do. What’s the point of being there if people don’t care about what you learn. “You’re too fast; you need to let others catch up” was a frequent lecture in and outside of the classroom.
So. Why this long back story? ALL MY LIFE [screaming at the top of my lungs] people have been telling me to slow down and I’m tired of it! I am here to tell you that you do NOT need to slow down. People are scared of what they do not understand, but the reality is that they don’t need to understand us! We don’t need to sit and wait for them to figure it out, let’s SHOW them what we’re made of.
We live in a world where literally anything is possible. If you want to make a pig fly you just put a water jet pack on it and away he goes. I do not encourage abuse or inhuman activities of any sort, so don’t be dumb enough to try it without thinking through those consequences. My point is, don’t make excuses. If you want to run while everyone else is crawling, then go for it. You can watch them try to catch up to you from the finish line!
It’s a new age and this world needs pathfinders like you. Don’t waste your time waiting for the rest of the world to keep up to you. Dream big and have the courage to trust in your abilities. You can do anything you put your mind to and there’s plenty of opportunity to go around. You’re smarter than you give yourself credit for.