What makes you #UniquelyYou: Soraya

What makes you Uniquely You?

I conflate. I cross wires and make connections where connections are not there or not there to those without dyslexia. It is as if I am seeing things from a more oblique angle to others.
I make rather than speak and explain. I navigate what is often a frightening or difficult to comprehend world through my making.
When not making my mind flits from one thing to another. I find it hard to concentrate on one thing, particularly when reading and writing.
It is stop, start with many junctures.
My makings seem random too but there is a connective thread around ideas of occupation of the domestic space, women's work and being seen as second rate.

I have dyslexia and/but…

I have dyslexia and was slow to read or write with any fluidity. However, I love books and reading. I am a slow reader, and many words I cannot translate into rightful meaning. Although I like to write as it helps me think. I construct sentences strangely, and sometimes lack clarity in what I am trying to say but maybe that is showing my dyslexia way of thinking

It is important to raise awareness of dyslexia because…

It was traumatic being a child with dyslexia. The label of being stupid stuck hard. I have hidden in plain view all my life hoping nobody will discover I can't read, write or do maths because of the stigma I carry form school.

Even now I cry when I talk about being dyslexic because I am that vulnerable child again. I don't want anyone else to go through life thinking less of themselves as I have. There was one set of rules, one way or type of understanding and assessing worth and if you didn’t fit you were marked down. Everyone has value, we are all differently gifted what is no varied is the way we judge and appraise abilities.