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It took me 30 years and a knee injury to discover that I am dyslexic. Yes I know it may sound crazy, but let me explain. As a New Yorker, I had 2 full time jobs to survive. During the day, I worked as a sales consultant for Verizon Wireless. Overnight, I worked as a direct support professional at a group home. After working at Verizon from 10am to 7pm I went to my overnight job from 11pm to 8 am.
The Verizon wireless store is old and small. The basement is below ground and poorly lit. The inventory room is located there as well as the pipes for the apartments above. Going down there is like exploring the basement of an old haunted house in a horror movie. When on the ground level you are welcomed with a door to take you down there. When you open the door all you see are old wooden stairs about 30 in number. A couple of them were warped and bent out of shape due to years of foot steppers going up and down. The wooden handrails were also bent out of shape and loosely connected to the wall that ran parallel to the stairs.
On a sunny summer afternoon, a client of mine called the store. I sold him a phone earlier that week and he was pleased with our encounter. During the call he expressed that he wanted to purchase an iPad and asked If I could help him with the transaction. I told him that I would be more than happy to process the purchase and asked him to be on a brief hold so I can confirm inventory in the basement.
As I proceeded down the stairs, I held on to the hand rail. Because of the overpass being so low, I had to bend a little to protect my head. As a result, I placed about 60% of my body weight on the right side handrail. As I descended down the stairs, the handrail broke, sending me down tumbling like a soda can falling down a vending machine. The fall was painful. I didn’t realize it until later that evening at my overnight job. Perhaps it was because I was full of adrenaline from the prospect of meeting my sales target for the month by selling the iPad.
The following morning I was in too much pain to make it in for work. I called out and noted that it was due to my fall and that I needed to see a physician. After seeing one and a series of examinations it was brought to my attention that I had a minor meniscus tear in my right knee. My physician noted that he didn't want me in any strenuous activities and to relax my body.
This was the first time that I was still. I didn't have to run from one job to another. I was home and got a chance to rest. I’ll be honest, I didn't know what that felt like. I was so used to my routine. Being still granted me the opportunity to self reflect and journal. It was at this moment that I asked myself a question. I asked myself : what is something I find challenging to do and why? My answer was reading, especially reading out loud. My reason was because I would skip words, forget how to pronounce them, and replace words with other ones. It took me 3x the time to read and got frustrated when I had to.
I searched for more information on Google. Additionally, I wanted to know if there were others like me. I am naturally a curious person and love learning. The word dyslexic kept popping up on a few websites. YouTube is my favorite medium for consuming information, and boy, did I surprise myself. I searched the phrase "Dyslexic." What I discovered was that I have been misunderstood. Because I was unaware that I was dyslexic I went through my youth thinking that I was slow and not intelligent. Everyone is smart in their own way. “if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its life believing it is stupid.” That was me, I was a fish, and was judged by my ability to climb a tree.
During my time off from work and my new discovery, I realized I had a lot of healing to go through both physically and mentally. I dedicated the rest of my time off to do so. My confidence level went up. I unearthed tools to help me work around my challenges. I also found my strengths. In many ways I thank the universe for the injury. I fell into my gift. I realized that what I thought was a weakness is actually my superpower!
