Freshman Abby Feldman looks at the board in class, trying to decipher the letters that spell out the word abandon, but because of her dyslexia, she cannot tell the difference between the D and B.

Feldman said she found out she was dyslexic from her doctor at the age of 8.

“I went in for ADHD testing and they said I had dyslexia. I was 8 when I went in to go get tested,” Feldman said.

Feldman said she battles daily with mixing up letters in reading and participating in class.

“I get words mixed up and Ds and Bs are hard and so are Gs and Js. It depends on what the word is but longer words are more difficult,” Feldman said. “It’s really hard to read and write. Reading is not very enjoyable because it’s hard to talk in front of a class and reading out loud is also hard because I get worried.”

Feldman’s English teacher Andrew Carlson said he doesn’t notice any difference between her and any other student in class.

“I actually was unaware for quite sometime, she never really showed she was struggling at all,” Carlson said. “She’s going off really good in English class and she’s been doing a really good job and she’s pretty thorough in her work and gets her reading done.”

Even though she faces difficulties, Feldman said there are advantages.

“I can read things if letters are mixed up like in crosswords,” Feldman said.  “In math it said ‘pi of life’ but all of the letters were mixed around so people couldn’t tell (it was life of pi) but I could tell right away because I have dyslexia so it’s easier for me — it impacts me in a good way as well.”