Gavin Pushed Through Reading Struggles and Found His Passion For English On the Other Side

"I kinda went from not really liking [reading] and not really enjoying myself to then here's this real big change."

Watch the video and read the full transcript below

“There's so many options and opportunities being an English teacher and being a teacher in general. I can even go international if I wanted to teach in another country, really cool stuff.

I'm Gavin Flanagan. I'm 17.

I go to Hyde Park High School, and I live in Austin, Texas. I love Austin, it's good. I'll probably move away when I graduate, maybe go to college, not in Austin,maybe somewhere else in Texas. But Austin's amazing. It's so lively and everyone's always doing something. It's very fun.

Can you share a challenge you faced and how it shaped you?

I was diagnosed with dyslexia at a young age, think it was about halfway through first grade. And first grade just right off the bat was real struggle. I couldn't really read. I was falling behind. Standing up and trying to read in front of other students who could was so embarrassing and sad. But we pushed through and my parents were super supportive. And I really just didn't like reading back then or English cuz I had such a bad experience with it.

I actually didn't wanna be an English teacher until maybe eighth grade, I think. That's when it really kinda started to hit me. I think it was in eighth grade. And it was this five-page essay that we had to turn in. And I think that it was based on "The Call of the Wild" or something like that. Very basic eighth grade book.

And everyone was 'I don't wanna do it. It's gonna be terrible.' And I had it finished and I was turning it on the last day. And then the teacher said that it was one of the best out of the entire students.

And there's just something about that that kinda stood out how I kinda went from not really liking it and not really enjoying myself to then here's this real big change. Here's this kind of second road that you just kinda discovered, maybe go and venture that a little bit. So I guess that would be the real kind of turning point.

It was really great and it was especially something that I was unused to, having the teacher, especially English teacher, saying that it's really great work. It was just so different from where I started.”

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