Miss-Delectable
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The Frederick News-Post Online - Frederick County Maryland Daily Newspaper
Noisy trucks barreling down South Carroll Street on Thursday afternoon didn't interfere one bit with Ashlyn Witczak's conversation in a nearby playground.
Her hands glided through the air with butterfly-like alacrity. She was communicating in American Sign Language -- her first language. She also wrote on a notepad.
With a camera slung around her neck, the 16-year-old sophomore at Maryland School for the Deaf explained how her parents, being deaf, helped her adjust.
"They sent me here, (to) this school, for the whole of my life to fit in the deaf culture ... to socialize with other deaf people and they taught me to be 'different' and don't consider (myself) as handicapped."
Ashlyn's long blonde hair fell forward across her sunlit forehead as she rapidly penned her answers.
Most people don't understand deafness, she noted. "It doesn't matter because people out there respect me."
Ashlyn envisions going on to college at Gallaudet University in Washington and eventually working in the fashion industry.
She was out shooting a few photos for a digital photography class that afternoon. It was chilly and the pink "Barbie" top and blue jeans Ashlyn wore didn't quite keep her from shivering.
She ignored the cold. "I like to communicate with hearing by pen/paper," Ashlyn wrote. "It's difficult to learn lipreading, as it is nearly pure guesswork."
Noisy trucks barreling down South Carroll Street on Thursday afternoon didn't interfere one bit with Ashlyn Witczak's conversation in a nearby playground.
Her hands glided through the air with butterfly-like alacrity. She was communicating in American Sign Language -- her first language. She also wrote on a notepad.
With a camera slung around her neck, the 16-year-old sophomore at Maryland School for the Deaf explained how her parents, being deaf, helped her adjust.
"They sent me here, (to) this school, for the whole of my life to fit in the deaf culture ... to socialize with other deaf people and they taught me to be 'different' and don't consider (myself) as handicapped."
Ashlyn's long blonde hair fell forward across her sunlit forehead as she rapidly penned her answers.
Most people don't understand deafness, she noted. "It doesn't matter because people out there respect me."
Ashlyn envisions going on to college at Gallaudet University in Washington and eventually working in the fashion industry.
She was out shooting a few photos for a digital photography class that afternoon. It was chilly and the pink "Barbie" top and blue jeans Ashlyn wore didn't quite keep her from shivering.
She ignored the cold. "I like to communicate with hearing by pen/paper," Ashlyn wrote. "It's difficult to learn lipreading, as it is nearly pure guesswork."