What's scarier to talk about at work: one's dyslexia or one's LARPing?

I work in a job that has monthly staff meetings. And, oh lucky me, by the nature of my position I often have to attend the monthly staff meetings of more than one department. The biggest area I support does this thing each month where they have an “all about me” agenda topic, wherein someone spends about ten minutes talking about their life outside of work. I know it sounds cheesey, but it’s a nice way to learn a little more about your colleagues than the standard, “Sally prefers diet Pepsi to diet Coke,” (Sally can burn in hell) and “Dan hates Mondays” (Get over yourself, Dan. Nobody likes Mondays).

This month it was my turn. The senior director asked me to “make it good.” This guy knows I have a lot of (too many) hobbies outside of work, and I could tell he was expecting something epic to break up the monotany of quarterly reports, metrics, and other such boring business verbiage.

Now, I don’t think I’m all that compelling, but to a room of people in their mid-40s spending all their free time raising kids (God bless you, breeders of our future saviors – climate change and antibiotic resistance ain’t gonna solve themselves) my life outside of work seems goddamn exciting. I opened with my love of all things martial arts and talked a bit about the 14 years I’ve spent studying Shotokan Karate. I then segued* into my gaming hobbies –board, table top, and yes, even LARP (google it). After getting a few good laughs out of the crowd upon explaining how I dress up and play pretend one weekend a month with a group of similarly nerdy adults, I moved on to my writing habits . . . or at least the habits I’m trying to develop. I spoke to one of my favorit Neil Gaiman quotes and then pivoted to dyslexia with the help of one of my favs, Agatha Christie.

Ok, I can’t freakin’ believe I spelled segued* correctly. The phonics gods smile upon me this evening.

When I told the room that I was dyslexic, and very proud to be so, I didn’t really get a reaction from the crowed. I wasn’t really expecting a reaction, to be fair.  Dyslexia awareness has come a long way, so it probably wasn’t very surprising to those in the room that they knew someone with it. Or amybe people were just trying to be polite and didn’t know how to respond. I don't know. 

Damnit, Jim, I'm a dyslexic, not a mind reader!

I went on to explain how I couldn’t really read until the third grade, how I use MS Word’s built in text-to-speech reader to double check myself when I’m wrting importing emails, and that chatting with me online and via text can be quite and adventure –especially when I’m drowsy.

I got a lot of smiles and laughs throughout my mini “about me,” and left the meeting feeling my co-workers had a better feel for what I was all about. I definitely didn’t get the sense that I that I was looked at any differently because of my dyslexia. In fact, one colleague even came up to me afterword and recommended a movie with a dyslexic protaganist that she found especially touching, Taare Zameen Par (Like Stars on Earth). Not being a heavy consumer of Indian cinema, I’d never heard of it. She went on to explain that it was well known in the South Asian community and that it was incredibly well received. I’m really looking forward to checking it out. Perhaps it will be the topic of a future post!

Ever seen Taare Zameen Par? What did you think? I watched the trailer . . . looks a little cutsey for my taste, but then not everything can be wire stunts and alien knife fights.

I’m really glad I was able to share more about my dyslexia with my co-workers. I obviously didn’t do it because I was seeking accomodations, praise for persererving through adversity, or pity. I spoke up about my dyslexia because I am truly proud of my dyslexic brain and the creative edge it has given me, as well as the persistence I’ve developed through years of education and hard work. I also wanted “normies” (or those presumed to be normies) to be empowered to spread the word about dyslexia and how people with the dyslexia can have normal, successful careers.  Honestly, I was way more scared to admit that I was a LARPer than a dyslexic J

What do you think? Are there any dyslexics out there who feel comfortable sharing this with bosses and colleagues? Why or why not? Do you think workplace discrimination is something dyslexics should worry about? I’ve never had a problem with this personally, so I’d be interested in hearing more about the experiences of others.

That’s all for today.

Don’t forget to spell check,

Rahcel