The Thing I Didn't Talk About
How dyslexia taught me to become a lifelong learner and transformed my greatest perceived weakness into my greatest professional strength.
For most of my career, very few people knew I was dyslexic.
Not because I was embarrassed. Not because I was ashamed. I simply worried people would misunderstand what it meant.
I worried they would hear the word and assume I was less capable. That I learned more slowly. That I couldn't process complex information. That somehow my accomplishments came with an asterisk.
So I didn't talk about it. I learned to adapt instead.
I developed systems. I reread things. I found different ways to absorb information. I worked around challenges that I often couldn't fully explain.
And for years, I assumed everyone else experienced learning the same way I did.
When I eventually learned I was dyslexic, something unexpected happened.
I didn't feel limited. I felt relieved.
Suddenly, there was an explanation for things that had never quite made sense. The challenge had never been intelligence. The challenge had been processing information differently.
Looking back, I realize dyslexia may have shaped my career more than I understood.
It taught me persistence. It taught me to ask questions. It taught me to verify my understanding rather than assume it. It taught me to look for patterns when others were focused on details. Most importantly, it taught me how to learn.
Throughout my career, I've moved across industries that appear completely unrelated:
- Aviation.
- Transit operations.
- Nuclear energy.
- Federal government.
- Information governance.
Every transition required learning an entirely new language, new regulations, new expectations, and new ways of thinking.
Being willing to become a beginner over and over again became one of my greatest professional strengths.
Ironically, the thing I spent years trying not to talk about may have helped create the skills I rely on most today.
I still meet people who hesitate to disclose learning differences because they fear it will cause others to question their abilities. I understand that fear. I carried it myself for years.
But experience has taught me something important:
A different way of learning is not the same thing as an inability to learn.
In fact, sometimes it creates strengths that are difficult to see until much later.
- The ability to adapt.
- The ability to persevere.
- The ability to approach problems from a different angle.
- The ability to keep learning long after others believe they already know enough.
Those abilities have served me far better than hiding ever did.
