The Mind is a Very Powerful Thing by Paisley

The Mind is a Very Powerful Thing by Paisley - February 2014 Scholarship Essay

"Change your thoughts and you can change your world." - Norman Vincent Peale

As a child I was made fun of often. Reading was hard and getting decent grades seemed impossible. I frequently acted out in frustration when I couldn't understand assignments and I slowly began to hate life. No matter how hard I worked, I was never good enough. Halfway through elementary school one of my teachers said that I should be tested for Dyslexia. Her daughter had it and my teacher said I showed the same symptoms. My family thought it would make sense since my mother and my grandmother both have the same reading disability and Dyslexia is hereditary.

Three teachers began tested me. After multiple tests, the first two were a 100% sure that I was dyslexic. The third one on the other hand didn't agree. I had a sophisticated vocabulary for my age and that certainly didn't fit the symptoms. I grew up with a lawyer for a grandfather, a teacher for an uncle, and father who could have been a politician. Can you really blame me. Another test failed. Not even a teenager yet and I was the most depressed I have ever been.

I stopped trying in school and the kids got meaner. I came home crying daily and my mother had had enough. She told me not to listen to the other kids when they said I was stupid, a moron, etc. She told me to believe I could do anything I wanted to, and surely enough I began to. Instead of listening to the bullies I changed my thoughts and my world changed with it. I started studying in ways that would help me, instead of what other kids would use and as a result I began to do better in school. I started loving life again as a child should.

Eventually I became the happy go lucky adult that is before you today. I was able to graduate high school with honors while being apart of 7 after school activities, not including recreational softball and a part time job. I now am a manager at BounceU where I make kids smile on a daily basis. I have real friends and I feel on top of the world. The old me would have never thought this was possible. Norman's quote fit my life so well and it still does today. When I am upset, frustrated, etc. I just change my thoughts to the opposite and suddenly things don't seem so bad. Thank you Norman vincent Peale and may your quote live on in the minds of the many generations to come.