How did you get interested in learning ASL?
Originally, many years ago when I was still in highschool, I used to go to Wag's restaurant (they're like Denny's) and I would remember often seeing deaf people at a table signing to each other and always thought it would be great if I could talk to them. I had been in boy scouts in the past and we were fortunate enough to learn to sign the alphabet, but that was all I knew. Then a few years ago I met a deaf girl and her friends and in one month that she visited me, she taught me many signs and I got to the point where I could communicate my point across at least. She also later found and introduced me to this website and I have hung around since. Unfortunately, things got whacky and we went separate ways, but I am still grateful for what I learned from her and for having been introduced to your community.
As a side note, last year I was doing direct sales and while I was at a customer's house, I found that the lady's son was deaf. They were both impressed that I was able to communicate with him, and it made me feel good that I could communicate with him. I found that I can communicate almost as well with sign language as I can with german (I took 2 years of german in high school but only remember very basics).
Now as an adult I know better. Stepping stones like this along with learning the ABCs in Girl Scouts led up to meeting my Grandmother-in-law. Her name was Jincey and she was deaf, at first I was way to nervous to attempt to sign and soon after I started trying to learn she was tradegicly taken away from us in a house fire. I promised myself I would continue to learn in her honor, my passion for the Deaf community and ASL has only grown stronger and stronger the longer I learn. I had taken classes in college while going for an Elem Education degree. I wanted to finish my degree but just couldn't resist that Miami Dade College is offering an Interpreting degree, so I changed degrees and working towards my dream job. 