David is a beautiful, creative, driven, and rare person in this world that we are grateful to know through our GED tutoring program. In this interview, David shares his experience with ADHD and dyslexia, two commonly intertwined learning disabilities/differences. While ADHD and dyslexia have been significant obstacles in David’s education, they have also been the source of his uniqueness and artistry, which he expresses through drag. You can find him performing as Ophelia Love at O. Henry’s, Asheville Beauty Academy, Miss Gay Latina, and other drag shows in the Asheville area.
David’s essay explores the role that art, performance, beauty, passion, and PRIDE have played in his life. He chose to write this essay with spellcheck off and completely unedited so the audience can get a small glimpse into how language works in the mind of a dyslexic person. “Ophelia Ballet” is a complicated, liberated work of art — just like David himself:
Ophelia Balla
“I wish that you could see the ballai that in my mind. Each day we all straggle with something. I have learned new ways to adapet to these curstamances. To give you some background this is how I interpret my mind through music dance and performing. My bally is about me reaching for my dreams as a female inpersonater. Lets take a trip through my mind t let you see how beautiful I am. Not to be confused I know that I am beautiful and I love myself and proud of what I have became as an entertainer. My balla starts with the three people and the main charter as Ophelia love and the struggles from her life that are from the past to present. Ophelia started out dancing as kid. Throughout the years she would learned this was they only thing that help me get through those though times. Then engment between these three people would last a life time though that never happen as we all got older and parted our ways. I think of those days and remember how it impacted me in ways no one would be able to usndertand. I’ve yet to perform this on any stage. But one day everyone will see the inter beauty that has come a long with this understanding. The music is soft a then travels through others people body mind and soal. Then is transfered into the mind of a dancer that dose not know how to tell anyone of this gift in fear that it would be taken from them. As the music slowly reaches Ophelia she in transvered to different unitferse and starts to think of what is happen to her. Then she come to the conclusion that maybe she is craxy but that not the true. I once read something that I could alawalys rember this qout “To be Or not to be which was written by William Shakespears. Wow how much this would inspire Ophelia. Ophelia begen to wonder how this would be perceived though the other dancers only to find that she was the only on that would be able to see it. I then beagn to dance as if I was a ballarrina only to have people make fun of me. This didn’t stop me I know that I would on day be able to perform it on stage. That time has come but have to work with dancers that don’t know. This such a scury thing I want people to see the interbeauty inside of Ophelia only to tell her she not any good or that she has talent.”
Great news! The 
Reading the local paper, I learned that 88 Afghan refugees were being brought to Asheville for resettlement after they escaped from Kabul. Wow, I thought, why Asheville?
I was slightly nervous my first time walking into a tiny room at AB Tech to meet my new student. Elaha sat before me, quiet, demure, with barely audible replies to anything I said. However, she already spoke and understood quite a bit of English, and when I asked her how she learned English, she said, “Watching movies on the internet.” “They have American movies in Afghanistan?” I asked incredulously. “No,” she patiently explained, “English subtitles to movies.” I was already impressed. 
I learned how self-centered the independent ethos of America seemed compared to the community family ethos of Afghanistan people. I learned that once you are ‘adopted’ into an Afghan family, you are accepted, just as you are, and then taken care of.
