Growing up, I always hated school. I hated having to up early (I still do), and I was never a fan of having to sit in a classroom all day; it never excited me. Only to make matters worse, I started to have extra help with my reading when I was only in second grade, and that lasted until I was in 8th grade. I grew up with a learning disability that still effects me today.

One misconception about learning disabilities is the idea that a person diagnosed with a learning disability is dumb, which isn't the case at all. In order to be diagnosed with one, you have to be at or above average intelligence. In my case, I wasn't "dumb." I just had trouble comprehending information I was reading.

No matter how many times people told me how smart I was, I always believed I was dumb because it would take me forever to read, and I would never remember what I just read. I tried so hard to hide it from my peers, but that's difficult when you're being called out of the classroom every day just so you can have extra help. Plus, no one ever picked me to read during popcorn reading because I was such a slow reader. It was so embarrassing.

I used to spend at least an hour a day working with others in hopes of improving my reading and reading comprehension abilities. I even had to take extra classes all throughout middle school because my abilities were lacking so much. In high school, those classes stopped. I was able to test out of them, but it only lasted a few years before I was back where I started.

Before going to college, I had to take placement tests. I ended up doing so poorly on the reading placement test that I had to take a no-credit English course before I could take any of the English classes at the University I'm currently attending. If I didn't, I would have been a class behind everyone else in my graduating class before the semester even started.

I was so ashamed of myself. I just wanted to be like everyone else, and I wanted to be able to read well and understand what I was reading. I didn't think I was ever going to make in college, and I thought it was going to hold me back forever.

I was very wrong.

I'm currently a Psychology major, and I recently took a class about disabilities in children and adolescents. We talked about learning disabilities, and I quickly found out that I wasn't the only person in the class who was also diagnosed with a learning disability when they were young. Many of them felt the same way growing up, but it in no way predicts how we are going to do in school. It also doesn't determine how successful we are going to be in the future.

I am in no way, shape, or form the best possible student. I could try a lot harder, but for the past two semesters I have earned a 3.4 GPA. I never thought I would be able to do that growing up, but here I am. I also never thought I would get accepted to college, and I'm about to start my senior year.

If you grew up with a learning disability, don't let it stop you. Push yourself to keep going-you will do just fine, and I promise you are far from unintelligent.