Learning disabilities are also not just a cluster of symptoms. They are a way that people experience the world. Although people can be taught to approach learning in ways that remediate the disability, they don't change the way the people who have them experience the world. They usually still have to work harder to get the same results as other people. They have to continue to use the workarounds they develop for themselves their whole lives, and they still display the little quirks that come with their disability, even if they are able to make them less obvious.

The other day, JtS said to me, "something's wrong with your brain". He was saying it as if he'd just discovered it. I said, "No kidding! I have ADD!"

Last night, I discovered an online forum for people with dyscalculia (my specific learning disability). It was so refreshing to read what other people with this disability had to say and to see so much of myself in them. It was like I had found my people at last. The people who know how how I experience the world, because they experience it in much the same way.