1st Go Around
From ages, 6-25 was a hard stretch for me. But I’m here to let you know and remind you that it doesn’t matter what your past was like or where you came from or what you did or didn’t do. As hard as it is for me to say this and yes, I’m very stubborn and hot-headed sometimes. I think everybody deserves a second chance in life. I say that now because I got one.
Now when you here second chance what do you think it means? Maybe they did or didn’t do something and now they are paying the consequences now for what happened. Well, that’s what I’m doing now. My second chance is not a typical second chance.
Round 2
With my first chance and go around, yes, I was young and you could say in the first part of my life I was still trying to figure some stuff out. Where I am right now my second chance definitely outweighs my first, there’s no comparison.
My first chance I was struggling to find myself and figuring out who Peter is and what I want to do in my life. What the world needs from me and searching for my purpose and finding direction. I’ll be honest, I’m still trying to figure all of that out even now at 29. But for the first time in my life, I’m happy to say I think I’m getting closer.
Reality Check
I finally feel like I’m moving in the right direction. I got married and published my book. Now, I have published one and have four more in draft mode. I published 120 posts on my website. With all of my posts, I have shared over 120,000 words on my website alone. In my five books, I have probably written around 250,000 words.
Did you ever think that maybe God wanted you to live a little and see the world and experience life? That’s a concept I didn’t understand for a while. I wanted to know right now, what I was supposed to do and my purpose. Well for all of you impatient people like me, news flash, it doesn’t work like that. It took me a long time to understand that.
I Can’t Help
I have recognized a few things in the last year. First is I don’t deserve any of this. I always saw myself as two different people, the real me and the me on the outside that everyone sees every day. The only problem was the side you saw on the outside wasn’t actually Peter, I was wearing a mask and hiding my true colors and issues and problems.
Life is hard and it takes work, sometimes it sucks and sometimes it’s not fun. But that can’t be the reason why you give up or stop trying. There were so many times I wanted to say screw it, I’ll be a pawn in this game of life and go with the flow. I’ll let other people in the world do amazing things and help people they come across. They don’t need me to do it, what can I even do?
Big Goals, Big opportunities
You have to forget about what you did in your past and what happened. It’s over now and its finally time to move on and get over it. Yes, sometimes it’s easier said than done, I won’t disagree with you on that. But if you want to live, and I mean truly live then it’s time to stop fighting your past and what you did or didn’t do or struggled with and make it up with your present and future. I was always embarrassed about my past. With all of my ups and downs, I was going through and struggling with. In the end, those issues were giving me the life experiences I needed to grow and become the person I was meant to become.
If I would have gotten all A’s and B’s in school I most likely would have gone to college. Now from there who knows what would have happened next. But I can tell you this, most likely I never would have read that book about 2Pac that got me to start journaling and writing in the first place.
Looking back now with where I came from, where I currently am and where I want to go. I have big goals, just ask my wife or family they will tell you. Helping kids and young adults not go down the wrong path like me is a top priority. I want to help and influence people with my books, my blog or just be a friend to them. I want to create a six-figure income and build my own business one day doing what I now feel I was meant to do. Another goal is to have Lindsay stay home full time and take care of our kids down the road one day like I know she wants to.
Live It Up
Yes, if you couldn’t follow along those are some big goals I just shared. I’m not going to apologize about those goals because we only have one life to live and one opportunity to live, why not make the most of it and have fun along the way. That’s the kind of mindset we all should have. I want that money so I can put that responsibility on my shoulders and not my wife’s. Yes, she makes more money than me but I don’t really care. What I care about is her not having to stress over it or feel like she has to work more and pick up more hours for us. That’s what bothers me in this situation.
I challenge you to not run away from new opportunities that come your way. Yes, they might be scary and intimating but that’s all part of the fun. Embrace your mistakes and have fun with it. Don’t be afraid of success and failure roll with it. When you can do that, that my friends is when you start to live.
I just heard your interview on Dyslexia Quest. Keep doing what you are doing! Having learned of my son’s dysgraphia and helping to identify a few students in our small private school with dylsexia, I earned my dyslexia specialist and am beginning a position in our school’s new resource room. I want to make school more doable and bearable for our LD population, but it really is difficult to help them get past discouragement and depression. I feel at a loss to help. Your words and your story are inspiring, and I am eager to read more! Keep up this important work!
Thank you, Julie, for sharing that and reaching out to me, I really appreciate it and it means alot. That’s awesome you decided to do that and start helping kids. What age group are your kids? It was definitely a challenge going through school, I definitely don’t miss it but I also wouldn’t have changed anything. Those struggles and hard times that I talk about is where my determination and passion came from.
Peter, the private school is k-12. So, students that have dyslexia and dygraphia are ages 7, 9, 10, 12, 13, and 14. We also have kids with other LDs. So i will be trying to help a wide variety of ages. My son is 13. I also want to reach out to the parents who often feel a loss at how to motivate and encourage. I feel like I am walking s tightrope with these kids in are they just too discouraged to try, are they able or not able to do a certain task, when are they struggling and when are they just being lazy? How can I advocate for them with other teachers when I can’t always know which is true of the student? I thought it was very valuable that you and Elisheva said a person without an LD just can’t know why a person with an LD is resisting work. That it is very complicated. I think I should just try to be supportive and encouraging and provide study helps, speech to text, and tutoring but realize it is more than I will really be able to umderstand.
Yes, that is a wide variety you are working with. It’s definitely a tuff age group, unfortunately. Again, unfortunately, there’s not just one correct answer, I think it kind of depends on the kid and every kid is at different levels with that. Some might not be struggling as much, or some might be worse and just don’t care. One thing you might be able to do is try and make it fun, and break it down into chunks. Maybe bribe them with 15-20 minutes of studying or doing homework then maybe 10-15 minute breaks of they do whatever they want. Thinking back to when I was younger or when my parents would be helping me if we would sit down and work for an hour was torture. You could try shorter chunks and breaks and bribe them with incentives to make it more fun and enjoyable. Or maybe you could tell the older kids or parents about my book. It’s about 180 pages and not a hard read. I made sure to keep the words as easy as possible for middle school or high school level so they could read it. I also have a couple of blog posts that might help. Inside the mind of a LD kid, my imperfections, this is who I am, my weaknesses into strengths. I hope that helps, let me know if I can do anything else.
Thank you for your advice! Yes! I plan to read your book this summer. Next year I might be doing a study skills class/homework help class hour (this summer I will fully plan what I do in this brand new position at our school), and I am thinking of either reading your book during that class hour to the class or assigning it over several weeks as well as reading some of your blog posts to the students.
Of course, it was my pleasure, I hope it helps. That’s awesome thank you, I hope you enjoy it this summer and it helps give you some answers or ideas. If you decide to use my blog or book it will be an honor and I hope they enjoy it recognize that I was just like them at one point. I still have my struggles and ups and downs, you will be able to tell in my blog. But you have to keep living and keep trying to do your best every day. If I can do anything else please let me know.