Joel Libava
ADDers Have A Need For Speed
This King has A.D.D. I use it to my advantage. But I didn’t even know I had A.D.D. until about 15 years ago.
My story;
Once upon a time, in a faraway Kingdom, (Cleveland, Ohio) a King was born. Weighing 6 pounds, 13 ounces, this very active infant soon became mobile, and proved to be quite the handful for his capable parents…
This King was a happy King, giggling and spinning his way through his toddler years. He was “the unusual” King in his Kingdom, but not a destructive King. He just marched to a different beat. (His own beat, actually)
His elementary school years were pretty challenging for him. He never felt that he quite fit in. He often tried a little too hard “friending” people. He learned that being the class clown often commanded attention. (Sometimes negative attention. From his teachers and the principal.)
His grades were average, but he plugged away, clowning around mostly, but studying when he had to.
His junior high school years were really challenging, and as the curriculum become more difficult, this King suffered tremendously. He took a battery of tests administered by the guidance counselor. His strengths were;
- An amazing ability to recall numbers and words
- Very high verbal skills
- Above average spelling skills
The challenging areas were conceptual things like geometry etc. There were also problems in concentration. (Like during class!) But, A.D.D. was never even brought up. Back then, (in the early 70s) A.D.D. wasn’t diagnosed or even discussed too often. Of course now, it’s supposedly being over-diagnosed.
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In 9th grade, this King’s family moved to another Kingdom, and that was an intense period in this King’s life. He had to make new friends. He felt pretty out of place, and really awkward. His high school years were quite challenging, and his grades were always borderline. He didn’t really care about school, because he was not very successful there.
He did graduate, and he did try college. This college was located in a neighboring Kingdom, and only required a short commute. The Franchise King lasted about 9 months. It was too hard. It was also too hard to learn in that particular environment. (That environment being the kind with class sizes of 300 students )
The Franchise King, in addition to having a superior verbal ability, also had another G-D given talent; His pipes. He had a natural radio voice. (And still does!) He decided to attend The Ohio School Of Broadcast Technique. He kicked some serious butt there. The classes were small. There was some one-on-one instruction. Plus, he was working (For free) at a local Cleveland rock station-M105, as an intern at the same time. He got to practice his craft in their studios.
He graduated from the broadcast school…
(Stay tuned for Part II of “Attention Deficit Disorder; Even King’s Can have A.D.D. We’ll be getting down to business-small business actually, and how the King’s “disability” actually helps)
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