When I first began writing in elementary school my teachers quickly found out that I mix up words and letters easily. After a few tests they determined I was dyslexic. It made sense because I was always the last person to finish tests. I was even placed in a special education class during standardized testing time each year.
One day in class we had a state wide contest for all the elementary students in APS. One student in each grade will be choses to represent the school. It was one of my first papers and I wrote about my hero, my grandpa. I ended up winning and going on tv for the first time, but not the last time. I received a ribbon and was able to talk infant of a large crowd about my paper and I still have the ribbon.
Years passed and school was never my strong suit. I failed a lot of classes in middle school and high school but the time my Grade Point Average got the lowest was when I transferred from Cibola to Volcano Vista for my junior year. It was a bad decision because it ended it me having a 1.4GPA. I got in trouble immediately because Im not the kind of person who likes authority and they were an authoritative, disciplinary school. They were new and made it a point they would get rid of any trouble makers. I made some mistakes and long story short I got expelled. Ask me for these stories if you want haha :D
So I went to a charter school for half a year after being expelled from volcano vista. Then I transferred back to Cibola. I took a standardized test in order to see where I placed. I ended up testing into Advanced Placement Literature. It was crazy to me because I literally did nothing at that charter school. I was shocked when they asked me if I wanna be in AP LIT. I immediately said
“Uhhh, I don’t know it sounds tough. Im just tryna graduate.” They said just try it and if its to much then you can always drop it and go normal lit. I said fine and agreed to go to the class.
AP Lit with Mr.Lytle was an interesting time. I learned how smart I am. I was in a class with the smartest kids in school and they all knew each other and they didn’t know me. I felt like an outcast for sure. I only knew one of them which was the QB of the school at the time. We knew each other since we were kids but went separate ways. He was really well liked by everyone in that class. So it came down to the final.
Mr Lyle says “get in groups we have the final coming up and its worth 40% of your final grade. I made eye contact with the only guy I knew and said lets be in a group, he said ok. This girl, who really didn’t like me, was in the group with us. So I kept trying to get everyones contact info and she kept interrupting saying well do all that later. Id say whats my part? Shed say we have to meet first. Id say ok when? We’ll figure it out.
A couple days pass and I see the group in class. So I go up to the guy I knew and said hey man when are we having that meeting cause we gotta get started. She interrupts us and says we already had the meeting. I said oh ok well whats my part? She says well we already started so we don’t really need you.
Ive never felt more out of place and unwanted in my life but I didn’t have time to complain because I had to do a huge group project with only one person. I got to work and began reading and researching and created a 3d project. It was terrible but Mr.Lytle had pity on me because he knew what happened. He knew I was the outcast in the class.
Whats funny is years later I was working for the Isotopes baseball as a camera operator. When I was filming there they also had Mr.Lytle filming. He left Cibola and became a camera op. So one day during a game the director is talking over our headsets says
“Mr.Lytle its crazy that I went to Cibola all these years and never had you as a teacher cause your awesome.” All the other camera ops and assistants who went to Cibola also said they didn’t have him as a teacher and how thats so weird. Then one person says “Well he was a AP lit teacher.” Then the director says “what are you saying were all to stupid to have him as a teacher or something?” They all laugh and they Mr.Lytle chimes in “Well actually Paul was my student.”
Years after this I wrote and directed NINA which is on Amazon Prime and won an award in LA.