My brain is upside down

My brain feels like it’s upside down

But where’s my spinal cord?

The thing that helps me feel

The thing that sends the signal 

If my brain is upside down, did it wrap around?

Around the thoughts in my skull

Maybe it’s keeping them together

Keeping them in check

I know I feel so I know it’s there

But why does it feel upside down

Yesterday wasn’t my day

Maybe today is not my day

Maybe tomorrow won’t be my day

Hey that’s ok

The reality is 

Even though my brain is upside down

Spun around

Rattled around

And flipped inside out

My spinal cord is still there

I’m still functioning

I’m still doing what I can

Even though 

My brain is upside down

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I wrote this poem during sacred writing time. I really didn’t follow the prompt, but I just let my thoughts out. It’s a poem relating to ADHD and how the ADHD mind works differently but how it’s not a flaw. As a kid, I understood from an early age that my mind worked a lot differently than those around me, and I always wanted to be “normal”. It took me a really long time to realize that I’m not going to be “normal”, I’m not going to be like everyone else, and really, that’s ok. 

Us as tutors need to understand that people don’t always learn the same way. There will be some students that we tutor that may learn a lot differently than we do, and that doesn’t make them any less smart or any smarter than we are. Everyone should be welcome into the writing center regardless of how they learn, that is something we have to hold on to as one of our fundamentals. 

However this doesn’t need to be for just the students we tutor. As tutors we need to understand that we ourselves may learn differently than someone else. Accepting this fact really aids in our abilities to tutor. Accepting it can help us try to understand people on a deeper level. If you are trying to be someone else, or whatever is considered “normal”, then if someone comes up to you with a similar mindset, they may start to think they aren’t “normal”. We don’t want people to feel like they have to “Fit in” or feel like they don’t belong. 

Everyone fits into the writing center regardless of how you learn. You don’t have to be perfect to be a tutor, you don’t have to know everything about writing, You don’t have to be amazing at grammar. You are you, and that’s what matters.