I was thinking about my father, I was disconnected from my family, I didn’t really spend much time thinking about the old man… I did my own thing. How he hadnt realy any opinion about me joining the Navy… That decision led me onto path of no return, a path that filled my life with anxiety, depression and chaos. I knew God, or at least a form of God that I liked. My God stood around waiting for me to need him, and I seldom actually needed him.
The Navy was a disaster for me, I signed up, went to do the intake to become an electronics specialist, something I really enjoyed and was a challenge. That is the day my life fell apart. I was “IN” the Navy and had no way to escape enlistment. I scored really high on all the tests, I could have gone into the Nuclear program until… I was pulled out of line into a closed room where I was interrogated for about half an hour. Alone, I was left until the end of the day, stressed out and scared, no support, a teenager that entered that day with dreams of success and hope for a great future… I was finally told I had two choices.
I remembered the tests from my early days, 6th grade I think… “Look at this picture and tell me the number you see?” over and over, card after card, when it was done, not a word… I thought “OHH GOOD, I PASSED THE COLOR BLIND TEST!”
It was now that fateful day after getting pulled aside. Navy doctors scrutinized my every part, every answer, interaction… Something was not right, but what? At age 18, I was informed, “You are color blind” They went on to say “Did you really think you could fool us?” Gasping for my breath, they continued to describe what will happen to if I continued to lie on official US dept of Navy documents.
My dreams slipped out of my mind like a walleye always, somehow finds a hole in the bottom of a fishing net.
Terrified, I was told they would give me a break. Taking another type of test, this time three colored lights, one green, one white and one red. I was relieved they told me the colors, at least I knew what to look for… I could tell the reds… NAILED THE REDS. I had no clue about the whites and greens, they both looked identical…
In a fit of disbelief, the doctors said, “How could you not know you are color blind?” I had 2 choices, become a cook in the belly of the beast feeding thousands of men (believe me, that was not appealing) or become “Builder” (guess what i picked)? I went on the be trained on how to take an unleveled spot of ground and transform it into a building with all the finishes.
How was I able to make it through 18 years of life without knowing? I don’t see colors like everyone around me? The answer to this was located in the same brain that was deficient in determining colors. It’s actually my super power. I discovered my dyslexia was actually a super power very late in life. Don’t get me wrong, I knew I had dyslexia.
I dropped out of school in Tenth grade, abandoning a two year, all expense paid scholorship at the U of M… I’ve knew I had dyslexia from before 6th grade, but I had no idea it was actually a “super power”.
The same “deficiency that makes me have scrambled words and makes writing so difficult and reading nearly impossible allows me to excel in “pattern recognition”… TROUBLSHOOTING! It’s what makes electronics so appealing and makes my brain see problems so easily.
But, not just patterns in things and stuff. Dyslexia helps me recognize patterns in personalities, systems, procedures and concepts.
Are you wondering “how can he drive? He can’t see green lights” … But, I can see patterns and I can recognize shapes and systems, so even though I can’t see that green light, I can see when the light is “out” of place or better yet, I can see when a light is “supposed to be there”.
Dyslexia is a super power, and even though I can’t see green lights, spot a drop of blood on a brown leaf, determine the colors on a color code for electronics… I learned to adapt, overcome and actually excel in trouble shooting industrial boilers. I had a super power! I would not trade this super power in to be able to see colors, even If I could.
I sit back and wonder why I was never told, “you are color blind” . Was this some cheap way of sparing my gentle heart from the disappointment of not being “perfect”? Imagine what difference it would have made if I had known I was color blind? I didn’t know I was color blind because instead I have the super power of Dyslexia. I was able to not just overcome the issue of not seeing colors, but it helped me develop my career and adult life in an amazing way…
I was told I had a deficiency in seeing colors, a deficiency in reading and writing and as my 6th grade teacher wrote on my year end report card “Charlie is not much use”… The reality is, my brain was different, and my teachers were not smart enough to provide me with the healthy challenges and guidance I needed to become successful, so I became “Autodidactic”.
God alone knew my path, he protected my journey, he was kind and loving, he gave me a “super power” and I bet you have one as well! Have you discovered it yet? I was in my late 40s when I started to discover I actually have two super powers, the other is called ADHD… Neither of them needed to be muted, they work in harmony… If you know what to look for, you will see ADHD has the gift of “hyper focus” and that hyper focus coupled with superior pattern recognition means my brain is perfect for troubleshooting almost anything, God knew that, God gave me this combined gift.
Have you discovered your super power? If not, reach out in prayer today and ask God to give you a correct view of your life. Maybe stop, ask God to reveal to you what his will is for you, he has one. God made you perfect, and you would benefit from knowing just how perfect HE made you.
In HIS service, C.
PS, no, I really cant see a number in the picture
PSS, Join the Navy, see the world, from the belly of a ship….