When I was younger, I lived on the reservation, and living conditions were not the best. Schools on the reservation were lucky if there was a book for everyone in classes. I don’t remember how often I even went to school, because it wasn’t required at all. At least by my parents’ standards.

After some time on the Rez, my sisters, mom, and I started moving a lot. We changed schools every year or at least twice a year because of how often we moved, and I hardly remember going to school. I did remember going to the library a lot to look at books with my class. My favorites were books about snakes, as I thought they were intriguing to look at although I couldn’t read them well. Checking out a variety of books often helped me teach myself to read more difficult books; I would use my dictionary to look up meanings of words that I did not understand. I would also read to my older sister and she would help me sound out the words I struggled with and sometimes I would even read to my mom for more practice.

In school, I felt like I had to do more of my learning outside of the classroom because I was a little behind, but I never stopped trying in times of frustration. I actually really loved school! Reading became easier once I was in 5th grade and slightly more stable. Often, I would check books out and read many books a week so I could get the highest AR test scores in my grade! I had many favorites, but the ones I remember reading a lot were the Harry Potter books and The Outsiders!

About a year ago, I was tested for ADHD, and when I got my results, my therapist also told me that I had a Learning Specific Disorder in Reading. It made sense, as she said it was probably because of how much I moved when I was younger, when learning to read is critical. Huge red flags included scoring lower than my potential on standardized tests such as the ACT and SAT, and it all clicked because I never knew why I couldn’t do better. I was told I wasn’t as smart, and I believed it. However, I have learned to turn that “weakness” into something better, and although I have my moments, I figure out new ways to work around the labels that people give me.