As a kid I struggled in school. I couldn’t learn the way my classmates did.

I loved to read, but I didn’t read very fast. I was very anxious. I felt left behind and was always trying to figure out how to catch up and fit in.

One of my teachers called me lazy when she displayed my math homework to the whole class on the overhead projector. It was a blank page except for the eraser and faded pencil marks. (Which she didn’t notice.) What she didn’t know was, as soon as I found out everyone else would see my work, I erased everything. I was afraid I’d done all of it wrong. So, I was trying to save face.

So, the outcome of that effort was a blow to my self-esteem and feeling mortified. And a general distrust of my teachers. 

I learned to memorize everything in my books to pass my classes and I graduated high school with a high B average. 

Would my life have changed had the school system and doctors knew about ADHD back then? I don’t know. I didn’t have a name for my struggles other than the family curse! Seems like a funny and wrong way to look at it now. 

But when I did get a name, ADHD, I was 48 years old. I mention this in my first blog. The diagnosis floored me!

Today I have a great therapist who is an ADHD expert. While searching to find out what was wrong with me, I found out what was right. 

I still have had the same struggles as others managing their ADHD. At the same time, all of us are unique and experience ADHD in different ways. 

As an ADHD Life coach, I want to provide support, understanding, and compassion for my clients. 

You can read my blogs or send me an email (on the contact page) if you want to talk or get to know more about my journey. I’d love to hear from you.

Go to http://www.betsywalterscoachinginc.com for more information about ADHD and my life coaching services.

By the time December 31st rolls around each year, I’m usually ready for a new year.

And, 2019 felt especially tiring at the end. For me personally and as a global citizen. Global warming, tweeted bully messaging, mass shootings, and all the shocking violent beliefs and actions happening. We all experienced this through 2019 as Americans, as a people.

I nearly lost Hope. But I didn’t.

I think the people of this planet are at a fork in the road. That means that there can be an alternative to the path we’ve been on. That path that could culminate in a global extinction event, the rise of hate groups such as Neo Nazis, and we could even loose our precious foundational democracy.

Or.

A fork means a decision needs to be made or to happen.

We still have time to decide our collective future.

One of the most hopeful events rising out of all of this is the empowerment and motivation of the current generation of teenagers. They are protesting gun violence, Hate crimes, and global warming. They care. They don’t want to tolerate HATE. They want to change their world. They want to have a world to live in, a future.

They remind me that I used to care strongly, I worked toward social causes and change, I used to raise money and awareness about illnesses such as MS, canvas neighborhoods with petitions, and I was lucky enough to join hands, on 10th Avenue in NYC, with thousands of other inspired people, to sing, and hope that, “We are the World”. Back in the 80s, I thought the world would change.

It would make me feel better if I could know that my young-person efforts, which continued through my middle age at a slower rate, actually contributed if not to a greater change, then to a pulse of positive energy in the world.

We, I, have a long way to go, but going is the only way to get there.

There are the young people trying to change the pattern of the future. And, I join them in heart and soul and action.

Hope will let you fly, even if you don’t have wings.