Personal

People have spent a lot of my life assuming words are easy for me.

I was the kid who read early, read constantly, and used words in ways adults noticed. I was trying to talk before I was six months old. My first word was really a first sentence: “Hi there mama.” I read everything I could get my hands on, including a medical dictionary when I was six.

From the outside, that looked like language strength. Maybe it was. I also suspect I may have been hyperlexic as a small child, though I can’t prove that now. What I can say is that early reading made adults notice my language before they noticed my friction with language. Reading words, recognizing patterns, and collecting vocabulary are not the same as being able to explain yourself easily, answer quickly, or turn internal experience into speech on demand.

Content Note: This narrative discusses medical trauma and institutional harm.

Preface #

This is a personal narrative about my experience as a blind, multiply disabled student in a residential school setting. It reflects my lived experience and my understanding as an adult, informed by later medical and psychological evaluations.

This account isn’t intended as an attack on individual staff members. It’s an account of systemic failure, medical misattribution, and institutional decision-making, and of the long-term impact those failures have had on my health, functioning, and sense of safety.