Sabrina Saleh is on her way to nursing school

In the first and second grade, I attended a private school. Then I attended public school starting in third grade, when my parents thought that moving to Kansas was the best decision for my education. They thought they had put me in the most wonderful school district that would provide me with all the academic services that I needed to help me with my learning difficulties. We were aiming for accommodations such as reading comprehension instruction, math help, testing in a separate room, and teachers to advocate for anti-bullying. Coming into third grade was a new experience for me.  I had changed schools, friend groups, and was adapting to a new environment that was much larger. I went through anxiety and bullying as a new student, and I was sidelined on the playground and left to play on my own. My parents endlessly fought for me to get the help I needed, but it never came through. To make a long story short, after three years of frustration with the school district and many tears as a result of my experiences on the playground, my parents decided that the best thing for me was to transfer me to Horizon Academy for sixth grade.

Teachers at Horizon not only taught me how to be academically proficient, but they taught me to communicate in my everyday life. I learned the SLANT Strategy, the Sentence Writing Strategy, the Test-Taking Strategy, and reading comprehension strategies. I used these strategies in high school and I am using them now in college as I prepare for nursing school at the University of Missouri, Kansas City.   The special acronyms that I learned such as PIRATES and SLANT have come in handy in every aspect of my academics. I feel extremely fortunate and lucky to have been taught these vital skills because many of my peers in high school and college were not exposed to them. As a result of my preparation at Horizon, I am completing my sophomore year in college, and I was recently accepted into nursing school.

Having a learning difference is not an easy journey. It puts one automatically in a category that is unforgiving in our modern-day society that thrives on fast things and immediate results: fast machines, fast learning, fast technology, fast communication, and fast social media. Some days, I feel I am swimming upstream and could never win in the social scene, but I will never let my disability be a limiting factor in relation to the endless possibilities that life can offer. I have learned to accept who I am and that my abilities can be limitless even with my daily struggles. As Olympic Gold medalist Scott Hamilton said and I quote, “The only disability in life is a bad attitude.”

~Sabrina Saleh, MO

_{Originally published in SIM 30x30+ more stories of success, hope, and innovation (2017, 30x30+17).}