I am a cyborg. Not a supervillain or a hero, but an everyday, common cyborg. My life has been an ongoing battle of proving to everyone who I really am…a hardworking student with disabilities. Disabilities can be hard to cope with, but even harder, is getting people to understand those with them… especially me, diagnosed with Asperger's, ADHD, and even more noticeably, unilateral hearing loss. These various disabilities have caused me much pain in my educational career yet have further shaped me in a tremendously positive way. My own personal experiences transformed me and have also helped me grow as an accomplished student.
The Asperger's and ADHD began early on. In first grade, it was rather obvious to me that something was not quite right. I regularly seemed distracted during class, especially classes that I found boring or slow. I remember one specific assignment where the goal was to draw a picture and write a caption about something from a book we had just read. Not particularly interested in drawing, and unable to decide on a topic, I found myself quite stalled. When my teacher checked in, my worksheet was totally blank. I have always been rather indecisive when given a choice to make, especially when that choice has more than two options. Similar incidents like this experience had taken place before, and my parents eventually became concerned and had me tested. As expected, I tested positive for both and since then, I have had the pleasure of needing to regularly go to a psychiatrist to help monitor medications. The medications have given me a superpower that was not there before: the ability to focus all my thoughts in a way that was not previously possible. Before the medications, I totally missed the mark for my school district's gifted program, but I was retested after medication and I was undoubtedly admitted into the enrichment program that I attended until recently. However, this is not the only disability that I must face day-to-day.
My hearing disability was not discovered by me personally until fifth grade. Not until I sat at my kitchen table to read my mom a chapter from a book that I noticed that my left ear did not sound symmetrical with my right. Surprisingly, both my school and my doctor's hearing tests never picked up on this. It took me until middle school to convince my parents to see a hearing specialist where we discovered I have a unilateral hearing loss due to nerve damage since birth. A hearing aid was added to my agenda each morning for the foreseeable future. The hearing aid helps, but it is not perfect. I run into listening predicaments that few high school students will ever face. Hearing problems are encountered on a regular basis. I can rarely determine the source of a sound, and certain frequencies can be slightly painful, especially when those frequencies are induced via feedback. However, I have worked through these difficulties and have done well in school.
Yes, these disabilities are inconveniences, but in the end, have provided me with multiple advantages compared to my peers. I find it easy to search out other students that have disabilities like myself, and I really enjoy helping them adjust to these same struggles. While entering this new chapter in my life, I am hopeful to be accepted into a college that will help me discover who I am while continuing to prove to myself and others that my disabilities shape me into a stronger student. With my secure determination, I can do anything I want to accomplish. I will never let my multiple disabilities hold me back. I have learned over the years that the success of a person is not determined by their ableness, but solely by their willingness to work hard. All of this has helped me become a knowledgeable, everyday cyborg with much, much more to learn and accomplish.