Okay guys, I get it! but bullying is not okay!

This is going to be a little rant post, because I’m just a little bit over having to say it.

As anyone who reads my blog regularly will know, I’m dyslexic, a uni student, and I love to write!

I mention those three things quite a bit.

But I want to make it clear that I’m not perfect. I don’t have perfect grammar, I generally suck at spelling and I am really bad at self-editing. I know this, and I do everything I can to try and improve. I have so much, but no matter what I do, I will never be perfect.

I have a best friend who screens all my posts before I post them. Now, she’s a vet nurse, not an English major, a writer, or an editor. So she’s not perfect either.

I hate that at the beginning of the post’s I have to say,’ look, I’m dyslexic, sorry if I stuff up.’ yes, I know mistakes are distracting. Yes, they seem unprofessional, but the thing is I’m no professional. I don’t get a million views a day, and I don’t ever expect to really. So yeah, I’m sorry I suck, I’m sorry I make mistakes, and you know what?  If I could change it, I would, trust me.

Being Dyslexic is not easy, it’s not fun and unless you have it yourself you can’t possibly understand how frustrating it can be. When I was in school, I tried four time harder than any kid my age did. I couldn’t understand why, reading, writing, spelling and grammar all come so easily to my classmates and I struggled to keep up. I worked so hard at it that it wasn’t until I reached year 11 that I even knew I was dyslexic. I thought I was stupid, I believed that I was just bad at English. I was and A to B student, in maths, chemistry, biology, psychology, physical science, so even then I couldn’t work out why it was so damned hard. Even, in those classes I had difficulties, but I had just gotten so used to it. It was my biology teacher, who originally suggested I had a learning disability and booked me an appointment with the school councilor to be tested.

I was out raged; I couldn’t believe that anyone could possibly think I had a learning disability. I worked hard damn it! I got good grades, but still, deep down I knew it shouldn’t be that hard, I knew I wasn’t dumb. So I went along and I done the test. I was so sure it was a waste of my time, until I got there. I felt like a child sounding out words, reading cards, matching letters to pictures and at first it was easy, until it wasn’t. It was during this test, I realised just how bad it was, it was a wake-up call. My entire life, no matter what I had done, people had always written me off as stupid and I wasn’t. I was also given an intelligence test, but I received no response on the day. A bit over two weeks later I was called back to the councilors office, sat down and told that I was dyslexic. That I had always been Dyslexic and that it should have been caught at a much younger age. She explained it all to me, what it was, how it affected some people differently, and that it was just a matter of working out what works best for me. My reading and writing was at a level much younger than I was, and I felt like an idiot. the councilor  told me that I wasn’t stupid, a fact I had always firmly believed, but in fact I had a IQ of 116 which was above average. Not extremely high, but still, it made me feel better.

I was upset at first, finding this out, but in a way, it was a relief. I learnt new ways to teach myself new things, and I decided then and there that I wanted to write.

I had always loved to read and write, I read slower and my writing was full of mistakes, but I have hundreds of note books filled with stories I wrote when I was younger. I decided I wasn’t going to let dyslexia stop me from doing something I loved. So I did, and I still do. It’s what made me write this blog. Sharing knowledge is the best way to learn.

So that’s what I do, and apparently a few people out there can’t accept that. I don’t want to stoop to their level, because having to deal with it myself is bad enough but, if you was a true writer, you would understand the passion us writer feel. The joy it brings just to write and share our stories with the world! But in reality this is my space. I post because I like to do it, and because I want to share advice with other writers.

Now I shouldn’t grumble too much, I have some awesome readers, which are super nice. But others? Not so much.

Remember guys, leaving nasty comments is a form of bullying. It’s not fair to me, and saying it doesn’t make your life better in anyway. I won’t approve them, so if you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t bother, because I don’t want to read it.

I’m sorry if that sounds harsh, but each time I post somewhere, either here, on other blogs, or guest posts, there is always that one person. The one who could have corrected me nicely, but didn’t, instead they poke fun at me, and at a piece I have worked so very hard on. And it hurts guys. So yeah, I could stop posting if I don’t like it, but you know what? You could also stop reading. I didn’t force you here; I’m not making you read, if it bothers you that much, stop. It’s that simple.

So next time you run someone down because they are dyslexic, think about it for a second. Remember how hard that person works, have some consideration for what it feels like to be in their shoes. This is good advice in general. Bullying is never okay, it hurts, and it’s not nice. Take a second to think before you post nasty things to people’s blogs, walls, photo’s, anything. Because I guarantee that if the roles were reversed, you wouldn’t like it either.