Stuff 6 - Empty Cardboard Tube:
Before you all navigate away in disgust, no I'm not going to turn this into a hand-wringing piece about how bad my childhood was. Well not much, because the truth is these days I have no regrets about it.
One of the reasons for this is that many years ago now my Brother gave me a piece of advice that has always stayed with me.
I was diagnosed as Dyslexic & Dyspraxic at the age of nearly 29 when I was studying at City College in Norwich. At the time this came as a huge relief, finally having a reason for why I struggled so much as a child.
With all I know now about living with both conditions looking back at my childhood it is blindingly obvious that these were the learning styles that I have. For many years I had a chip on my shoulder and an air of grievance about it. Particularly against the education system, because I performed so badly in childhood. But, as I have grown older I have become more comfortable in my own skin and it has lost its sting.
My Brother’s words ring true still all these years later “Ev, this is great news, just don’t let it turn you into a Badge Wearer”.
Good advice as it turns out. It would have been so easy to find out the reason why and to miss the most valuable lesson from it by clutching it too tightly.
How to move beyond it.
The truth is no-one has it easy in life, we all struggle at times & face things that trouble us or alter us. For many years I felt my school days had held me back. But, they haven’t really. Today’s object illustrates this quite well.
I graduated from City College Norwich with A BA (Hons) in Marketing in 2001. During the graduation ceremony I was handed this empty cardboard tube. The Diploma itself came in the post some weeks later.
It’s not the contents of the Cardboard Tube that were ever important, it was the journey that got me to that point & beyond that was important.
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