I am a fighter who never gives up. There are many reasons for failure in school; a common one is a learning disability. I was diagnosed with a learning disability in the second grade. School did not come easy to me and I had to work much harder than other kids in my grade. Assignments would always take me forever to do and I would get frustrated if I didn't get something right away. I had difficulty understanding and following instructions, and had trouble remembering what I was told. For example, my teacher would go over a lesson and then 10 minutes later I would forget what she said. Later when I went home to do my homework I had a difficult time because during class I had trouble sitting still and paying attention. In the early years of school, if I didn't get something the first time I would just give up and shut down.
When the work started to get even harder at school, I would get very frustrated and it caused me to have very low self esteem. I figured if I couldn't do the school work now it was almost certain that I was going to be a failure later on. I started to gravitate toward the kids with discipline problems in school because I said to myself I rather be classified as a bad kid than a dumb kid. I started to be disruptive by talking in the classroom to arguing and name calling on the playground.
I was determined to be a better student and to achieve my goals. I was placed in the partnership program at school which teaches you techniques to learn in a different way that is geared to your learning disabilities. I found out that I was not stupid but...