Blogging 101: The Journey

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Education isn’t just about what you learn, it’s about who you meet and the adventures that you have. I know that I have been very blessed.

http://dailypost.wordpress.com/dp_assignment/101-post-formats/

Quick Fire Questions: Has finding out you are dyslexic when at college affected your outlook?

Yes, it has changed my outlook. I always felt like I was stupid or inadequate through school. I couldn’t understand why I struggled so much with my reading and spelling. School were as useful as a chocolate fireguard. They weren’t prepared to have me diagnosed and instead kept saying that I couldn’t be good at everything. I was a bright student. I did well in exams, but I always felt as though I was being looked down on.

When I went back into education I told the college from the start that my previous college (just after I left school) had suggested that I may be dyslexic, but I hadn’t been given a proper assessment. The relief of being told that there was a reason why I had struggled so much through school, that it was because of dyslexia and not because I was ‘stupid’ like I had been told through school by my peers.

My outlook has been far more positive and I went on to achieve my goal of graduating from university by the time I was 30. It’s made me more determined to stand up as a dyslexic person and admit to my struggles as well as to my strengths.

Dyslexia and Me: Dreams or Reality (Graduation)

Dreams/Reality

This photo is of me on Tuesday 8th July, 2014. It’s the day after I graduated from the University of Aberdeen with a 2:1 in Celtic and Anglo-Saxon Studies – History. What’s the significance of this photograph? Well if you had told me 10 years ago I would be graduating from university at all I would have laughed and told you to pull the other leg! The tshirt I am wearing in this photograph is from a sketch in Father Ted, my favourite comedy series. In the episode, Father Dougal gets very confused between dreams and reality, so Ted draws him a diagram to explain. 

Dyslexia and Me: Doing it for the Grown Ups (and women?)

“Imagination is more important than knowledge.”

In the last month or so, I have been becoming far more active within the online community trying to raise awareness of dyslexia. It’s something that I was passionate about before I was diagnosed myself. When I was growing up we had a couple of family friends who suffered with dyslexia. Both have gone on to do amazing things, but there was always a struggle in reaching their goals. I had a poster of Albert Einstein on my wall as a teenager amongst all my posters of metal bands. It said on it, “Imagination is more important than knowledge”, a quote which I still live by to this day. Before I knew I was dyslexic I already had a number of people I admired due to their achievements despite struggling through school and the academic life to get to where they were. They were people I knew personally as well as the usual list of famous dyslexics that you can find on Google, Wikipedia etc.

Dyslexia and Me: A Month of Blogging

So I’ve been blogging on Dyslexia and Me for over a month now! It really doesn’t feel that long at all! It has been very exciting so far. I’ve had a lot of positive feedback and it has encouraged me to look into a career in learning support (though I am still searching for answers on where and what to do next, but my dissertation is my main priority the next month or so).

Dyslexia and Me: The adventure begins

Hello there! Thank you very much for deciding to read my first blog post on Dyslexia and Me!

My name is Áine (Hannah in English) and I am a 29 year old mature student studying an undergraduate degree in History, Celtic and Anglo-Saxon Studies. I am a big enthusiast of Viking history, I love music (especially metal) and cats… and I am dyslexic.