Even though I graduated from high school in 2002. I only graduated with an IEP (Individual Educational Plan). Which no colleges in New York accepted, so I had to go back to high school to get an EDP (External Diploma Program degree), which meant I had to take classes on things I never learned the first time, like fractions, sciences, and read books that I never got to read before, like Shakesphere. It took 2 years of classes to get me to where I needed to be just to take the test. But I finally did it in 2009.
It wasn’t easy fighting a learning disability and having such huge gaps between what my IEP taught me and what I was now needing. During this time, The Climb by Miley Cyrus came on (I’m not a super fan of hers, but this song played on repeat in my apartment. Please don’t judge me lol). The opening line: ” I can almost see it, the dream, I’m dreaming, but there is a voice inside my head saying You’ll never reach it…” That echoed everything that I was feeling when I was sitting there fighting my learning disability. Crying over math answers that would be majorly wrong. I knew I could go to college and graduate (which I have done), but no one else really thought I could. And to me, asking for help was just an excuse for “them” to say that I wouldn’t make it. Nope, I didn’t want to give anyone that power over my mindset. So I would sit on my living room floor blasting this song over and over til I knew every word, every beat.
The other lyric: The struggles I’m facing, the Chances I’m taking. Sometimes might knock me down, but no, I’m not breaking. Also spoke to me that even though I have always felt like math was my undefeatable bully. I wasn’t going to let it knock me down and keep me there. This song told me what I had to do. Appreciate the climb you have to go through because the view or the destination is great, but it’s what you learn about yourself in those moments that gives you the clearest and best view.
It took me years to finally graduate. I started college in fall 2009 and graduated Spring 2023. Not because I quit, but because life happened, and I had to make it through one more mountain and then another. But I can tell you, on my way to my graduation, that song was blaring on the radio to remind me that the climb to get here was long, hard, and took so much out of me. But it taught me so much more than I ever expected and has helped me shape and prepare me for the next mountain I have to climb.
This song still has the power to stop me dead in my tracks and empower me to keep climbing.
The Girl Who Couldn't Fit into A Box 
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