Laugh at Yourself Today
https://www.ispeech.org/text.to.speech
Laugh at Yourself Today
I can’t remember sight words but I can remember Flutter Ponies.
That’s funny. And I’m glad to say that I can laugh about it.
One of my struggles from my earliest attempts learning to read has been sight words. When I did flash cards as a young student I would miss a sight word like ‘why’ and if it came up again two cards later I would miss it again. The “w’ words have always been big trouble. I think it stems from my early days learning my letters. When the letter ‘v’ or ‘W’ would come up I would say ‘I hate that letter. ‘ For me they were the same letter so I was wrong at least half the time. That hasn’t changed much to this day. I still struggle with those letters.
So what does that have to do with Flutter Ponies? I was at the bar with some friends and we were playing the trivia game Quizzo. The question came up ‘Who saved the ponies from the Smooze?’. The friends I was playing with just looked at each other and said ‘I have no idea”. I quickly said ‘the flutter ponies’. They laughed and said ‘Did you make that up?’. I confidently said ‘No, wrtite it down.’ As that round was scored the emcee for Quizzo said ‘Who got flutter ponies?’. I don’t think he was expecting me to raise my hand. I was not a My Little Pony fan growing up but my sister was. Somehow I remembered that much to the surprise of my friends and fellow Quizzo players.
You just have to laugh. How do I struggle with why and when yet remember obscure names from 1980’s cartoon shows?
There are lots of other examples like this that I could talk about. The thing that I have learned is the importance of being able to laugh at yourself. As Jeremy Sherman said in Psychology Today ‘For my health, if laughter is the best medicine, laughter at myself is a wonder drug.’Laughing at yourself is a key element of resilience and shows self-awareness and self-acceptance that I have found essential to dealing with dyslexia.
So, laugh at yourself today. It is an important part of making the most of dyslexia.
