Imagine yourself 31 years young, lying in bed looking at facebook on your phone like a lot of us do and coming across a blog post someone posted on their feed and the title of the blog post brought up some feeling inside of you that you have been pushing down for years. Do you click on it to read it? You have to read it right? OF COURSE YOU DO! This title hit you like a ton of bricks, took your breath away and opened up some deep wounds and memories that you had forgotten about because you pushed them so deep.

Well that’s exactly what happened to me the other morning. This blog post opened up deep and pretty dark memories that have been buried for so long I had forgotten they existed. That’s the point right? When you don’t want to remember something you bury it so deep in hopes that you’ll never find it again.

Elementary School

That’s what I thought I was doing at that young elementary age. Let’s bury the memories of feeling stupid, feeling dumb, feeling that you’ll never understand what’s being taught. Oh let’s not forget the feelings of “my gosh please teacher don’t call on me!!”. Thinking, if I just look down and not into their eyes, of course they won’t call on me… and then quickly realizing I was wrong… they will call on me because I was so terribly obvious that I didn’t want to be called on. The tests, let’s talk about all of the test anxiety I had, and honestly still have to this day. (that bundle of joy – test anxiety- popped up a few weeks ago when I had to take a quick test for work) Don’t forget to bury the memories of sitting in class, confused, frustrated and couldn’t keep up, that your hands were sweating, the lump in your throat that was so large you couldn’t even swallow without feeling the tears well up in your eyes. Thinking, “my gosh, what is wrong with me? Why is this so hard? Why am I about to cry? I feel so alone!”.

Don’t worry, you read that right. Those feelings are just a few of the feelings I have buried deep down inside of me from my Elementary school days. YES Elementary School! I was just a little child. I had no idea what was wrong or going on. How terrible for a young child to feel that much stress, anxiety and pain at such a young age. That has to stop… THAT HAS TO STOP NOW!

The right to learn…

All children deserve the right to learn. They deserve to feel safe and get the help they need as soon as humanly possible. All children (and people) are different and all children (and people) learn differently! The blog post I read from a parent that fought so hard, for years, for their child to get tested for a learning disability, tore me up. It brought back those memories… those memories dug themselves out of my deep dark memorie grave and saw the light of day again. I cried, I got angry, I got out of bed even more determined, than I was before I read it, to keep pushing to help make a change!

While reading her blog, I saw myself in her son. Not all of my feelings were the same as his, but all feelings matter! All stories matter! Every Child Matters!

So now what?

I believe was put on this earth to make it a better place, to go through struggles pain and growth. Everyone is different and everyone learns differently. We all have a purpose and a why. I’m here to encourage, inspire and educate all children with (and without) Different Abilities that that being different is amazing! Having Different Abilities makes you who YOU are and that’s wonderful. I’m here to inspire children to know that they can do anything with a lot of hard work, determination and NEVER GIVING UP!

Here are some links and resources:

Link to the original blog post that brought back all of those memories: https://www.thedyslexiainitiative.org/post/the-cost-of-refusing-to-diagnose-dyslexia?fbclid=IwAR3mRyrTB2IQbdZPUhb-UJCfgC6LPYhKSdxjX71-u9Q555Yq_onWR2khF8Q

I’m creating a community all about Different Abilities. This community is for children, their parents and educators! I have created a private facebook group for my new podcast that I will be launching very soon! Please check it out and ask to join if you’d like to be apart of this movement and change! https://www.facebook.com/groups/584415548867534/

Here’s my youtube page where I create Motivating and Inspiring content for all. Please consider subscribing and hitting the bell to get updates when I post the new weekly videos! https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdgWFdcm2visSV0TYrb7cRg?view_as=subscriber

Instagram if you’d like to follow and have new updates of what things I’m working on: https://www.instagram.com/kateyfortun/

Lastly, here’s my website were you can learn more about what I’m up to. It’s ever changing and I’m so excited to be adding a lot more in the near future to help serve this amazing community that is being built for you! https://kateyfortun.com/