2. Turned around

Window Pain

Ok, so I can walk again, and it’s off to school and like every first grade student, I want to do my best. But, sometimes things get in the way, like when my daughter wanted to ride her bike on a rainy day but instead sat bored at the window pane.

I failed grade one. Seems they didn’t pass students who couldn’t read back then just because they got older.   Half-way through my second year in grade one, they found out I could read perfectly in a mirror. Yep, that’s me again, backwards and right to left.  I have dyslexia real bad and once I was old enough ( 2 years later ) I was sent off  for special education  to work with very special teachers who turned my words ( and world ) around. Wasn’t easy, I hated it, and spent hours each day for 3 years in a room by myself with a projector flashing letters on the wall. Would I do it again? You bet! I can read.

So here we go, off to high school with kids my own age, yep they got me all caught up.  I was great at math, poor at reading, and able to spell in my own strange language. I hated school like everyone else and then, met some of the best teachers I ever knew. I finished high school with a 92% average grade and was named valedictorian.

My math teacher introduced me to programming on the IBM Pet computer, had to take two different math courses to get into that program but getting my CCNA instructors qualification many years later had started with this one great teacher.

My art teacher introduced me to commercial art and colour theory.  And I loved it so much that I created great cityscapes, paintings, and produced lots of calligraphy for 3 years.  I was going to be a great artist, then I saw a kid, who after finally being forced to draw a picture like it was the worst moment of their life, produce something so much better than my work I had quit doing art (Last and only time I ever quit something  ... well except when I quit smoking).

My English teacher gave be a different type of book every day and took it back the next day, all he asked of me was to read some of it.  He never asked me anything else about the book that I could remember.   After several weeks of this he gave me Z for Zachariah, I wouldn't let him take that one back. Then he got me more books like that. Soon I was skipping school to finish reading books (don’t tell my teachers, because I said I was sick).  This is the teacher that turned my life around, and because of him I eventually became a technology teacher with a full degree... but that's for another time.