It was only last year when I was studying on an access course in Art and Design at the University of Cumbria that my Dyslexia was picked up. At school is was never noticed, my understanding of dyslexia then was spelling or reading problems, I was ok at it but not brilliant, maybe the teachers just thought I was a bit stupid. I vaguely remember the reports coming back, 'Nicola has potential if she tries harder'. Maybe that was the problem, I was but things were not being picked up. This is very common for many people and if you feel that you are having difficulties I recommend getting it checke out. There is so much to Dyslexia and I understand that there are so many people it effects. How it effects me is my working memory, so retaining information is a problem. Someone could say something which would appear simple to understand but it will take my brain a little while to digest and understand what is being said. Also reading can be a pain, it can take a long time to read a book and especially now I have these art books to read it is very scary! At the University there is the SIGN centre, the people here are fab and help with any problems I may have with my work. I decided to continue into Higher Education at this Uni, the course i am studying is Contemporary Applied Art. I am fortunate enough to have the support at the university to help with any issues I have relating to my dyslexia. I also suffer with depression on occasions,  I am aware that so many people do and this brings me to why I have set up this blog. I want to be able to help people who are suffering any kind of issue by either expressing themselves with art and getting creative or just by giving comfort by reading my blog. When you are feeling down you sometimes fee very alone and I hope by reading this you wont. I will update it weekly and cover various issues and speak about my time at the University of Cumbria. It also for you to make any suggestion or comments. It can take me a while to write so I will be back in the next day or two to really get the ball rolling. See you soon x