random rambling: trust your gut.

If there is one thing in my life that has never ever failed me it’s my gut. There has been many times where I have failed to trust my gut feelings and it has always blown up in my face. It could be little things to huge decisions but my insides always know what’s best.

A huge example of this has to do with my health. When I was in high school I struggled with some serious thyroid issues. I was in and out of the hospital all that time. I had to go get my blood work every two weeks to make sure I was regulated. Every few months I would have an allergic reaction to the medication I was one and we would have to start all over again with something new. It was getting very old and kind of scary. There were concerns of developing cancer cells as well as my thyroid over reacting and pretty much frying me from the inside out. I was sent to a specialist. The first thing they talked about was radiation; they wanted to kill my thyroid. I quickly refused treatment. It didn’t feel right, it didn’t sound right to me. Something was telling me “NO! STOP! DON’T DO IT!” After I told them no they refused to continue treatment with me. I was too high of a risk to just have on medication. The doctors told me I probably wouldn’t live too long without serious medication or surgery. I stood by my decision. It’s not every day you hear from a doctor that you’re going to die in a few years but I didn’t care. I didn’t believe it was true.

Here I am at 26 years old and I’m living a full and healthy life. After some time past my thyroid started to regulate itself. I don’t need medication and I’m feeling pretty good. Some of my symptoms hung around. My hands still shake like a leaf, I still bruise like I have anemia, and my thyroid is still enlarged but there are no real issues. If I would have listened to the doctor I would have had to take a pill everyday for the rest of my life to supplement my thyroid hormone, doesn’t sound like fun to me. I’m not saying refusing treatment from a doctor is for everyone, by all means! There is a good reason why we have doctors to help and treat us when our bodies just can’t anymore. It’s just an example of when my gut feelings really came into play.

I’m so thankful for that little voice helping me and guiding me. It could be a job decision or a big move; I say follow your insides first. Sometimes I think our heads really can get in the way. Do you listen to your gut? Where has it lead you?

living in a color coded world.

Look out, I'm going to get a little serious on you guys!

When I was a kid I was label as different or “special.” At a very young age I was ‘diagnosed’ with a learning disability. I struggled with reading, writing, achromatic and pretty much anything that had to do with school.

Wikipedia says:

Dyslexia is a broad term defining a learning disability that impairs a person's fluency or comprehension accuracy in being able to read, speak, and spell, and which can manifest itself as a difficulty with phonological awareness, phonological decoding, orthographic coding, auditory short-term memory, and/or rapid naming. Dyslexia is separate and distinct from reading difficulties resulting from other causes, such as a non-neurological deficiency with vision or hearing, or from poor or inadequate reading instruction.

It pretty much means a person with dyslexia has problems reading and comprehending symbols such as letters and numbers. When I was in elementary school and we were just learning to write and read if you held my hand written name up to a mirror you could actually read it better. Twenty some years ago they didn’t know what to do with a kid like me, so I got jammed into the “Special Education” classes. I did need extra help, that was for sure, but not the way they thought. The classes made me very lazy and it took a long time for me to finally understand how to read and write. My parents were lost as well. Thankfully they hired a wonderful home tutor to help me get through my struggles.

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I have a lot of difficulties getting through elementary and middle school, suddenly in high school something clicked in my brain. I pretty much taught myself strategies for reading and writing that worked for me. Most of my teachers from grade school told my parents that they didn’t believe I would make it through high school. I made sure to prove them wrong. I graduate with honors with a 3.8 grade point average. I had made it.

Color coding seriously has saved my learning ability. I didn’t realize it until years later but I used to use multi colored high lighters for everything I was learning. If I was in a play my script was covered in marker and colors. My eyes could focus better of the colors then it could the words and it helped my brain process the information. In the past few years I’ve talked to parents of children with the same problem as me, and they also use color coding to help get through their studies.

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I do sometimes worry that Aurora will have the same struggles as me. I remember it being very difficult and painful, I watched as my friends learned in school and I couldn’t. I was bullied with the best of them, called names, shoved into lockers, even pushed down a flight of stairs. It’s a hard reality but sometimes kids just don’t understand. I’m just thankful I went through it, and have learned from it so I can teach Aurora, or the new little one, how to handle learning a little bit better. There are also different levels of the learning disability; some people need a little help, some a lot. Just like everything else, each case is different for every person.

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Some people think that people with learning disabilities are stupid and slow. I have found this to be the complete opposite of the truth. Most of them have better knowledge and interesting things to say than any other “normal” person I’ve meet. Is it because they have to work harder to gain the information they know? I have no idea. I wear my dyslexia on my sleeve as a proud badge of honor. I used to be completely illiterate, but now I’m working my way through college and enjoying writing and blogging as much as I can. It might take me longer to do things than others, but it doesn’t mean I can’t, it just means I get to work harder as something I love to do.

wordy on wednesday: five

I was having a lot of trouble coming up with what I was going to do for this weeks "Wordy on Wednesday" so I decided to sit down with all my crafty stuff and go crazy. This is what that looked like:

Wel I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out seeing as thought I didn't know where it was going.

Dream

Some close ups:

Happy trails!!!

wordy on wednesday: two

As promised I have created a new image for my "wordy on wednesday" series! This was an idea I had a long time ago, I've sketched it out but never finished it, and I'm really happy with the results:

Happy Trails!

Wordy on Wednesday

I’ve decided to try and make this blog a little more organized; mainly for me. I want to make sure that I blog on a regular bases and as often as possible. My first step in this goal is to create a weekly series, thus Wordy on Wednesday was born.

I adore words. Words and I have not always seen eye to eye but eventually we came to terms and have had a great love affair ever since. I enjoy quotes, one liners, zingers, and lyrics the most. Even one simple word can be very thought provoking to me.

So here’s the deal: Every Wednesday from here till whenever I will take time to be creative. I will take my favorite word, quote, song lyrics, or whatever and create something visual. It could be a photo or a sketch but whatever it is it has to be WORDY!



Here is my first attempt at this. Please be kind, this is the first time I've ever really done the "scrapbooking" deal. Recently I've been using the word lovely for EVERYTHING! I can't help it, it's a lovely word!
I’m excited! Are you?




Happy Trails!