Mum, read us a story

“Mummy, please can you read a bedtime story to us.” “Moyin, don’t you think you’re a little too old for bedtime stories, really, you’re almost twelve years old.” “Please mum, just one story. Perhaps, on how you became so RICH! I thought dyslexic people aren’t smart.” Mope (Moyin’s twin sister) questioned her mother. In shock with what her daughter told her, she replied “What does dyslexia have to do with success? Who gave you that impression that dyslexic people can’t be successful?” “It’s nothing, just some senior guy in my school who keeps picking on me for no specific reason. He told me I can never be successful because I am dumb and dyslexic, but I promise I never listened to him.” Mope replied sobbing “Sorry about that sweetie, he’s just a bully and you shouldn’t let him get to you, okay. You are smart and being dyslexic doesn’t make you less than anyone and if anything at all, it just makes you unique.” “It’s getting late, let me quickly tell you your bed time story, close your eyes and listen with an open mind.”

Back in 2002
I once faced a similar situation to this, Mope. A long time ago, I was seen as the ‘dyslexic girl’, ‘the girl who found it hard to solve a simple two plus two maths equation, someone who found it difficult to write a simple sentence, like her own name!’ People laughed at me, mocked me, threw things at me and constantly reminded me that I had a “condition”, I was dyslexic and for that reason I should be considered dumb and incompetent and that I could never be seen hanging out with them. It all got to my tiny little head, ringing that bell and reminding me I was different. Yes, it made me cry myself to sleep most nights because at that time no one knew what dyslexia was and I just thought I was simply a ‘stupid’ child. My teachers made it a duty of theirs to mock and tease me every class by telling me to either read out loud or solve maths equations on the board. It didn’t really get better but I put myself together and worked harder on myself, so that people wouldn’t only see my weak side but would see my creativity and how good an artist I was. An excellent actor too.