United We Stand, Divided We Fail

Here’s what I know about life, it is not easy.

• Growing up is hard.
• Being a teenager is hard.
• Being an adult is hard.
• Being married is hard.
• Being single is hard.
• Raising kids is hard.
• Being dyslexic is hard.

The guidepost in my life is staying true to my heart, my faith, my family and who I am at my core.

That being said here’s what I choose to be intolerant of, in no particular order.

• Drama.
• Manipulation.
• Lies.
• Being a fake person.
• Gas lighting.
• Treating people like they’re stupid.
• Treating others poorly.
• Being cruel and / or abusive to children.
• Being cruel and / or abusive to animals.
• Claiming to care about the welfare of children, but that really being a lie.

To a certain extent I live a portion of my life rather publicly.  I choose to do this purely for the fight for dyslexia.  If I wasn’t involved in this world, honestly I wouldn’t even exist in the social media space.

Living a quasi-public existence means I’m going to expose myself to vitriol.  That’s ok.  I’m a big girl.  I can handle it.

In doing what I do I meet and interact with people.  Some of these encounters are positive and some are negative.  That’s life.  If you can’t handle it then, well, tough.  You should have learned early on that this was life and to develop a thicker skin.  That doesn’t mean you don’t get to be upset about the negative encounters in life, but you do have to let it go and move on.

Let me define “move on.”

These encounters may change your life’s direction and that’s ok, but the course correction you create must be for positive reasons.  It cannot be to “show someone” or “teach someone a lesson” or attempt to “one-up” someone or any of the other litany of negative reasons to course correct.  Course corrections must be to move you down the road on the path you choose to walk.

Clarification.

I believe in God.  Within this belief I believe that much of our life is defined for us, but he gave us free will for a reason.  Within our free will we choose how we walk through the challenges He puts before us, the lessons He teaches us, the barriers He puts before us.  It is a journey with a guide who is trying to show you where He wants you to go.  How you get there and how you walk along the way is where your free will comes into play.  Who you become along the journey is defined by your free will as well.  At the end of the journey you must explain how the gifts and challenges you were provided were managed by your choices.  What kind of person were you?  Did you listen to the path He put before you?  Did you serve others?

Now, back to what I was saying.

In my 2.5 year dyslexia journey, I’ve met some interesting people.

Some I knew right off the bat that I could never trust them, and when they lived up to the assumptions I had made about them, I was hurt, but not shocked.  Once I let myself wallow far too long in the hurt I felt, even though I didn’t trust them, but I have been able to move on.  I was disappointed in myself for letting them hurt me, and I was disappointed even more in the “I’ll show you” attitude I took on.

In our grief we can behave in less than appropriate ways.  What’s important is to heal, to grow, to forgive, and to move on.

I’ve done that.

I’ve also terminated friendships once I’ve realized how much cruelty actually existed within those relationships.  Under the guise of friendship and love, people can lie, manipulate and gas light.  While within the generalities of life, that’s not in the least bit surprising, it is always a bit of a shock when someone you trusted and loved as a friend turn out to not be the person you thought they were.  That realization hurts, but what’s freeing is when their true colors become evident.

What’s difficult to cope with at times is the chaos these people attempt to create around you.

I’ve been called some pretty horrific names.  I’ve been unfriended by people who never bothered to ask me my side of the story, which out of respect for individual privacy I wouldn’t have discussed anyway.

I’m also spied on by people who pretend to be my friend, when in all actuality all they desperately want is to watch me fail and take nothing but joy in my failure.

But, that’s ok.  I don’t have time for fake people.  For those who spy, I can’t completely stop that from happening and when living a quasi-public life on social media, that is the risk.  But, I know who they are.  They’d be dumbfounded that I really and truly know who they are, but I do.  I rather enjoy the humor their actions create in my life, but other than the occasional laugh, I completely ignore them.

But all of this drama, these fake people, they’re a part of every day life.  We encounter them at work, at school, at the grocery store.  They exist everywhere.  I know I keep saying it, but that’s just life.

I had thought that all within this world were pure of heart, desiring the same positive outcomes for our children while being locked hand in hand with every parent on this journey, but that was naive, and that’s ok.  I like to think it means I thought the best of people, but that life stepped in to show me the truth of things, so I would know best how to proceed.

The chaos makers, that’s all they’re going to do.  That’s life.  There are so many here for the right reasons, who truly want to change things for the better for all children.

Parents need help, they need guides, someone to talk to, a listening ear and understanding.  They are seeking information, an education and most importantly, they are seeking empowerment.  This is a confusing world and the political system, special interests, opinion makers, etc. have just made it all that much more confusing.  This is a dystopian world where everything isn’t what it seems, except for the child in front of us begging for help.

If you’re here to troll, to attempt to drag me down, to insult me, go for it.  I’m a big girl and honestly you don’t bother me.  You will not distract me from my end game.

I was originally here for my son, but now I’m here for all children.  I don’t like injustice.  I don’t like bullies.  I believe in education, but a fair an equitable yet challenging education for all where all children are celebrated, given ample opportunity, allowed to both fail and succeed and learn from both, where their strengths are celebrated, where they get the help they need for their weaknesses, where they are challenged, where they thrive.

It will take a truly united community to achieve real change.  Join with me!  Unite with me!  Together we can accomplish so much!  Our children deserve nothing less than for us all to give all that we can give through our voices, our determination, our testimony and our demand for education to do better.