Hello again.

A few of you asked for new blogs and I failed to deliver.  
At least 3 drafts were created over the past month, but never finished (typical.)  
Hopefully you can forgive me, as I also have some exciting news I would love to share later in this post!  

Original title:
Hi, my name is Jenni and I have Attention Deficit Disorder.

Earlier this year, I wrote about being diagnosed with ADD.  Now I'd like to write about ways that I'm dealing with it and becoming more confident with myself.



The single most valuable resource I've found is the book Delivered from Distraction by Dr. Ned Hallowell and John Ramey.  My first time reading it, I probably cried 50 times.  I felt as though the writers had secretly been taping me and reading my mind to know how I felt throughout my life.  The book truly reinforced my diagnosis and I discovered that so many personality traits and character flaws that I've struggled with are actually a part of having ADD.  But the important part of the book was the section on actually dealing with the disorder.

When I was initially diagnosed with ADD, my job consisted of sitting at a desk at a home remodeling company, surrounded by adults who failed to appreciate my creativity and put me down when I tried to take initiative.  If I could sum up my year working there in one word it would be: miserable.  There were a few positives, even having a job in 2008 was more than some others had.  And if I hadn't begun losing focus at work, I may have never discovered I had ADD.  But here I am getting sidetracked from my point - DEALING with the disorder.

Delivered from Distraction highlights a bunch of ways ADDers can turn their lives around.  Find your passion.  Develop your talents and make them work for you.  Get a job doing something you love.  Stay away from people and activities that highlight your weaknesses.  Play.  Connect with people.  Discover ways to let your brain maximize ideas without shame and fear.  Have a purpose.  Become comfortable with yourself.  Join teams or organizations that give you a sense of belonging.

Many of you reading this know how much I adore children.  Staring at pages and pages of ways to deal with having ADD, my mind kept jumping to the one thing in life that brings me absolute, pure joy.  KIDS.

I've found my passion: helping young people learn, grow and discover themselves.  Teaching gymnastics has become the greatest outlet for my ADD.  I'm not only allowed to be creative, active and silly - its encouraged.  My coworkers share the same love for children and we work together to grow instead of against each other to get ahead.  I'm embracing and ameliorating my natural talents, like being remarkably patient with children (where I lack patience in all other areas of my life, I make up for with the little guys) and being a strong leader and communicator.

Which brings me to my important announcement (and the reason I've slacked on blogging lately...)

Yours truly will be the Camp Director for a new summer gymnastics program in Arlington County!  I also received a promotion in my regular role at the gym.  My boss initially asked me a few months ago if I would be interested in the Director position and I accepted on the spot... but nothing really changed.  Now that summer is right around the corner, I've been super busy doing trainings, developing lesson plans and coming up with ideas for camp.  I'll be posting a blog about my new position later this week.

Most of the time, I feel blessed to have discovered my passion and excited to be able to spend the majority of my life immersed in it.  I have a purpose.  I belong.  I am confident as a teacher and role model for children.

But then I have not so good days.  Sometimes my weaknesses overshadow my strengths.  I'm still working to feel confident as a whole person.  I continue to grow and change as I discover more and more about myself.  I know that I need to train myself to be positive and understand there are parts of myself that I just need to accept.  Now I understand why the Serenity Prayer can be so helpful to people:

"God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
Courage to change the things I can,
And wisdom to know the difference."

If I'm going to be living with myself for the rest of my life, I might as well spend my time figuring out who I am!  Luckily, I'm a lot of fun to be around...