As a teenager, school was difficult for me. I had a kind of attention disorder, which means I couldn't direct my attention to what I was doing. So when everyone else in the class was centering their attention on tasks, I could not.
In my first reading class, Mrs. Smith asked us to read a story and then write on it, all finished in 45 minutes. I immediately put up my hand and said, "Mrs. Smith, you see, the doctor said I have attention problems. I might not be able to finish the task. "
She looked down at me through her glasses, saying, "You are not different from your classmates, young man. "With her encouragement, I tried. But I didn't finish the reading when the bell rang. I had to take it home.
In the quietness of my bedroom, the story suddenly all became clear to me. It was about a blind person, Louis Braille. He Lived in a time when the blind couldn't get much education. But Louis didn't give up. Instead, he invented a reading system of raised dots(点), which opened up a whole new world of knowledge to the blind.
Wasn't I the "blind" in my class, being made to learn like the "sighted " students? With thoughts running through my head, I found myself deeply attracted in reading and writing. I completed the task in less than 40 minutes. I realized that I was not different from others. I just needed a quieter place. If Louis could find his way out of his problem, why should I ever give up?
I didn't expect anything when I handed in my paper to Mrs. Smith, so it was quite a surprise when it came back to me the next day with an "A" on it. At the bottom of the paper were these words, "See what you can do when you keep trying?"
