How Disability Has Affected My Life

My father left when I was four years old. He was kicked out of the house by my mother for his drug addiction. Although I do not remember it, I know it has affected me in many ways including my education. I hadn’t struggled with school until fifth grade when my grades dropped dramatically and didn’t seem to ever recover. My mother believed that the divorce distracted me from my studies which then triggered my depression. Again, this hurt my grades. It was a long chain reaction that started with my father, but I knew there was something else. Although everything my mom said made perfect sense, one thing she never thought of was a learning disability.

My older brother has multiple learning disabilities that were clear as day when looking from the outside. So, academically my mother’s focus went to him. He was placed into all types of IEP and tutor programs until his junior year of high school when he was admitted into Landmark School. Landmark is a school that works specifically with students with learning disabilities. My brother was now succeeding in school while I was meeting with every therapist in the state trying to solve my academic block.

It turned out that I had been struggling with ADHD, executive functioning deficits, slow processing speed, anxiety, and mild depression. This came to a surprise for my family and I. I never thought I would have a learning disability. Immediately my mom fought to get me a 504 plan for my high school. It was approved, but no teacher of mine followed it. I continued to struggle the remainder of my sophomore year while my mom fought for me to attend Landmark with my brother. After months of fighting, interviews and applications I was finally accepted into the school that would help me become academically