I just found out I was diagnosed legally retarded as a child. I went Air Force and served honorably and even got my degree in the process.

I never saw the documents stating I am retarded, but my uncle told me recently that my parents got the diagnosis from the doctor examining me at the age of 5 and putting me through a bunch of tests (which I do sort of remember) but they ignored it "because americans just love to diagnose everything and take prescriptions". My immigrant parents thought it meant "mentally ill", which has a huge stigma among our culture, so they just conveniently ignored the diagnosis and enrolled me in a regular school where I struggled (but managed to get a high school diploma with a shitty GPA).

I was eventually enrolled in art school because my parents still wanted me to get a degree but didn't believe I was smart enough for anything else, and I failed and dropped out. But then after that, I got into the Air Force with no issues. I decided to go for a degree again. I did full time school on top of active duty. I took online school, and I probably wouldn't have been able to make it if that wasn't a thing. It was tough and I failed a couple classes and kept repeating classes that I lost track. Eventually I finished two classes not knowing they were my last ones (because I lost track) and I finished them. I started two more classes, and then one day my supervisor came up to me. Looking back, I realize that I had a very patient SSGT who was my supervisor.

My supervisor asked if I finished school, and I was like "I dont think so yet Sgt" and she was like "hey confoosedairman, I got an email saying you finished school."

me: "wait, really?"

her: "yeah. you're a college graduate now."

I can't believe it you guys. I was like "yay i did it!"

her: "Congratulations, airman!"

SSgt showed me the email she got from AFVEC saying I passed my classes, just like she gets emails when I fail a class. She saw that I fulfilled all the criteria for the degree. She told me to check my email to see if I got any diploma info from my school. I then realized that I already got my diploma two months ago and just paid out of pocket for 2 classes I didn't need.

But yeah, I did it! Good for a legally retarded person, right?