Dyspraxia at school made me feel awful but I promise it does get better

The most important thing to remember growing up with dyspraxia is that things do get better.

It is tough as a teenager to be different from social conventions, but as hard as it feels then, it does get easier and your friends become more understanding.

I was called a retard and a spastic every day for seven years at school, because I was placed in every bottom set and had to use an Alphasmart, an old style version of a laptop.

Whilst I was at a grammar school, my parents were told by some teachers I would be better off going to another school because I did not have the capability to be there.

Most of the people I went to school with thought I was stupid and I was very socially awkward for most of my school life.

I felt like I was below most of the people in my year and did not deserve to speak to them, so I deliberately didn't talk to them for fear of being called a retard.

For some of those people, abusing me was a joke, they couldn’t see how much hurt they were causing. For others, I think they genuinely believed that they were better than me and that I didn’t deserve to breathe the same air as them.

I felt terrible for a lot of the time growing up at school, I have only keep in touch with one person I met there and he was completely different to this.

But after achieving a 2:1 at Newcastle University and achieving my dream of becoming a journalist, I realised that dyspraxia does not stop you doing what you want to do.

When I got into Newcastle University I felt so happy, because every person who had called me stupid had been proven wrong. It drove me on, I love proving people wrong so much.

They say that dyspraxia includes positive qualities such as determination, creativity, humour and empathy and I do believe this is the case. I think I do have these, particularly determination, bordering on stubbornness.

At university the people I met couldn't have been more different. It was so rare to be called out for my disability and that was amazing. I can't thank my friends enough for that.

Now aged 25, I don't think it gets noticed too much what I have and for young dyspraxics that is the most important thing.

You do develop coping mechanisms even if you don't think you do, if you consider it for a minute now in your 20s I think you'll find that all of the things that used to affect you a lot do not affect you that much anymore.

I sat down and thought about all of the things I have done to cope with dyspraxia the other day and I felt proud. Yes I still have times that I have bursts of low self-esteem, but I am so much better at dealing with it.

Because my sense of direction is poor I simply leave extra time, because I feel socially awkward in groups at times I try to develop a friendship with one part of the group in particular.

Dyspraxia does make things more difficult when you are growing up, but I believe it develops you in other ways beating these challenges.