How My Halloween Costume Helped Me Accept My Disabilities

I’ve been very fortunate in many ways, including the fact that my mom has made creative Halloween costumes for me, such as a bag-like puppet and a jellyfish costume that lit up. But the costume my mom made for me this Halloween was my favorite.

I’ve always been slower than most people my age. When I was about 1 year old, a doctor told my parents I had hypotonia. Fortunately, my hypotonia was very mild and mainly just affected me as a baby and a child. My parents were also able to get me physical therapy appointments, which helped a lot.

Then I struggled with getting school work done in elementary and intermediate school. I have executive functioning difficulties, ADD, slow processing and OCD so that contributed to making me take longer than most people to complete my school work and homework. Fifth and sixth grade were the hardest for me academically. However, I worked extremely hard in school by doing homework for hours and staying up late to try to finish it. My work paid off as I got all As.

After that year, I went to a private school for learning disabilities; that helped tremendously as the teachers were able to work more with the students in ways they could learn.

I wish I could say that was the end of my struggles with learning disabilities, but that’s not the case. It still affects me today in college and other aspects of my life. I’m taking an extra semester of college classes to graduate, and will be graduating in December 2020. My learning disabilities, anxiety and OCD have all contributed to me having low self-esteem as it takes me longer to do tasks or learn things than others.

However, I learned it’s OK that I have learning disabilities and a mental illness. The quote “Slow and steady wins the race,” from the Aesop fable, “The Tortoise and the Hare” has recently become my motivational statement. Yes, I’m slow in a lot of areas, but that doesn’t mean I can’t succeed in life. I can still “win my own race” in life if I keep persevering, just like the tortoise. I can also still win because I have wonderful people such as friends and family who will support me.

That’s how the turtle became my spirit animal. When I wore the turtle costume my mom made me that had the quote “Slow and Steady Wins the Race” written on it, I was able to embrace that confidence.