I see the World Differently Than You - The Tale of a Synesthete

Younger Years

     I've always been very literate. I read very quickly and have a large vocabulary. I even "read" before I knew how.

     When I was young - before I knew how to read - my dad would read to me at night before I went to sleep. One morning, though, he heard someone speaking in my room. When he went to investigate, he found me "reading" the book. I couldn't read yet - I was doing it from memory. After watching me for a while, he realized that I wasn't merely guessing at the words; what I was saying was in front of me word for word, and I was even turning the pages in the right places.

     That was the first hint of my photographic memory. It would be followed by many more.

     When I broke my wrist (my dominant one) I had to learn how to write with my left hand. Using my left hand, it was hard to go left to right across the paper. Eventually, I decided to try to write backwards - right to left - across the paper. I started with something simple - my name - and made it harder and harder as the days went on. By the time I got my splint off, not only was the writing on my left hand nearly as good as my right, but I was able to write entire paragraphs backwards, right to left and bottom to top. It was a useful trick, and one that comes in handy when I'm labeling something and don't know how much space it will take up, but I know where it will finish.

     As I grew older, I was tested and classified as Gifted. I was in the 96th to 99th percentile for every category except for processing speed - I was in the 16th percentile, an abysmal score - and was diagnosed with ADHD as a result. When it became apparent that my ADHD was severely hindering my educational performance, my classification was changed from Gifted to Twice Exceptional.

     Now I tell you why I'm writing this. I have Ticker Tape Synesthesia. Most people associate Synesthesia with seeing colors, but that's Grapheme-Color Synesthesia type; the most common. The only colors I see present themselves as auras around people. Other than that, I don't see colors; I see words.