Hey guys. I'm a profoundly deaf teenager in high school atm, and I thought I'd share a slice of life. Who knows, someone may find it inspirational.
First, a little backstory: No one in my family (save for a distant uncle who is moderately deaf) has any hearing problems. My mother hypothesizes that it was an infection that she had during her pregnancy that made me deaf. My parents are both doctors.
On with the story. Shortly after I was born, I was returned to my mother. My mom knew how babies were supposed to react to voices around them, and several hours after being in contact with me, she surmised that I was hard of hearing. She somehow managed to persuade the doctors to test me for hearing even though there was no family history. All the while the doctors claimed there was no way I was hard of hearing. After I was tested, the results showed up, showing me profoundly hard of hearing. Go figure... Doctors then claimed that I would never read or write beyond a third grade reading level. I'm currently a 4.0 student in upper level honors and AP courses. I'll leave you to decide if this is above a 3rd grade writing level
.
Thus, a few hours after I was born, my parents knew of my disability. They immediately arranged to fit me with hearing aids. I was just a few months old at this time. My parents were determined to have me function in society as a normal human being, without the aid of an interpretor or sign language. They wanted me to talk and speak naturally. I underwent many long hours of training at the John Tracy Clinic, House Ear Clinic (In Los Angeles), and with my mother, who was working full time at the time to earn her tenure. As a result of all this, I have a great sense of respect for my mom and the sacrifice that she put in for me.
I have a few memories from this time in my life that stand out. One was, and my mom reinforced this many times, the time that i first identified an object in the outdoors, a helicopter. I was sitting on a park bench and a helicopter went overhead. I pointed at the sky and said "Wah wah wah wah," just as my mom had taught me how the helicopters go. To this day, I visit the park bench where this happened with fond recollections.
Another memory was a bit later. I had had a particularly rough day and came home, upset about anything. I chose my hearing aids to focus on. I queried, "Why must I have these annoying things in my ear. They hurt me, make me stand out and don't help me at all." My mom then told me to stand at the end of the hallway and talk to her. She was able to repeat everything I said with ease. She asked me to do the same. With my hearing aids, it was no problem. No sooner I had taken them out, however, then I could only comprehend the faintest of murmurings. This was a milestone in my life because, personally, I think this is the first time I realized I was truly deaf.
When it came time for me to be put into school, I went to a small private school, where the class sizes were small and the student to teacher ratio rather low. Unfortunately, the school didn't match out for me. I then went to a public school for a few years. They provided some sort of overhead mounted loudspeaker that was supposed to help me to hear what the teacher was saying. I don't remember it helping all that much. Later, I was fitted with the FM system. This helped MUCH more then the loudspeaker at the top of the room. Despite my being in the upper levels of education, they tried to bring me down to remedial levels because I had trouble focusing on teachers while they were talking (needless to say, I was in the back of the room at the time). They claimed it was ADHD, I called it not being able to hear...
I got bullied by the teachers and students at this school for reasons that I'd rather not mention. I then went to another small private school, this time a Protestant Christian school. Most people there were warm and accepting, but the class size was very small and most of the kids had known each other for years and years. It was then that the school district decided to make our lives living hell for using the FM system. The two that they sent us refused to work, the one that did work had been beaten to hell and back and needed a new battery, and finally, just died out completely. My mom, tired of dealing with the government that treated me like a "walking hearing aid," gave in and bought her own FM system for me. For this, I am eternally grateful. I then went to a Catholic high school where I attend now.
Throughout the first year I used the FM system, however, in the second year, it became very hard. The teachers, when they walked around, would bounce the FM system around their body, making staticy noise. Teachers sneezing with the FM system was never nice either. Eventually, I decided just to stop bringing it. I am actually able to hear the teachers better without it, for reasons previously mentioned. I feel this (that is, acting like a normal student) is the great reward of all the hard work that I put into learning to talk.
I tried to be as active as I could be. I tried a great many sports and extracurricular activities, some working, some not, for various reasons. I went from piano to soccer to basketball to viola to chess to swimming (JO Level), just to name a few. All these, I showed up on the second day hating. However, I had always enjoyed watersports such as waterskiing, wakeboarding, swimming, and sailing. When I got to my high school and found that they had a sailing team, I was ecstatic. I immediately tried out and got in. Sailing is very rarely done by deaf people for a couple of reasons, firstly, that it requires a great amount of communication. Secondly, you get very wet. At first, I started without hearing aids, but that severely reduced the amount of communication I could get. I just decided to roll the dice with hearing aids. My folks got water insurance on them, just in case. I continue to sail and love it, hence my nickname.
Overall, while I would have liked to tell a lot more about myself, there is only so much room, and I fear that even this is too much and you will all be requesting a TL;DR. I can only hope that this has been an inspiring piece to some.
First, a little backstory: No one in my family (save for a distant uncle who is moderately deaf) has any hearing problems. My mother hypothesizes that it was an infection that she had during her pregnancy that made me deaf. My parents are both doctors.
On with the story. Shortly after I was born, I was returned to my mother. My mom knew how babies were supposed to react to voices around them, and several hours after being in contact with me, she surmised that I was hard of hearing. She somehow managed to persuade the doctors to test me for hearing even though there was no family history. All the while the doctors claimed there was no way I was hard of hearing. After I was tested, the results showed up, showing me profoundly hard of hearing. Go figure... Doctors then claimed that I would never read or write beyond a third grade reading level. I'm currently a 4.0 student in upper level honors and AP courses. I'll leave you to decide if this is above a 3rd grade writing level
.Thus, a few hours after I was born, my parents knew of my disability. They immediately arranged to fit me with hearing aids. I was just a few months old at this time. My parents were determined to have me function in society as a normal human being, without the aid of an interpretor or sign language. They wanted me to talk and speak naturally. I underwent many long hours of training at the John Tracy Clinic, House Ear Clinic (In Los Angeles), and with my mother, who was working full time at the time to earn her tenure. As a result of all this, I have a great sense of respect for my mom and the sacrifice that she put in for me.
I have a few memories from this time in my life that stand out. One was, and my mom reinforced this many times, the time that i first identified an object in the outdoors, a helicopter. I was sitting on a park bench and a helicopter went overhead. I pointed at the sky and said "Wah wah wah wah," just as my mom had taught me how the helicopters go. To this day, I visit the park bench where this happened with fond recollections.
Another memory was a bit later. I had had a particularly rough day and came home, upset about anything. I chose my hearing aids to focus on. I queried, "Why must I have these annoying things in my ear. They hurt me, make me stand out and don't help me at all." My mom then told me to stand at the end of the hallway and talk to her. She was able to repeat everything I said with ease. She asked me to do the same. With my hearing aids, it was no problem. No sooner I had taken them out, however, then I could only comprehend the faintest of murmurings. This was a milestone in my life because, personally, I think this is the first time I realized I was truly deaf.
When it came time for me to be put into school, I went to a small private school, where the class sizes were small and the student to teacher ratio rather low. Unfortunately, the school didn't match out for me. I then went to a public school for a few years. They provided some sort of overhead mounted loudspeaker that was supposed to help me to hear what the teacher was saying. I don't remember it helping all that much. Later, I was fitted with the FM system. This helped MUCH more then the loudspeaker at the top of the room. Despite my being in the upper levels of education, they tried to bring me down to remedial levels because I had trouble focusing on teachers while they were talking (needless to say, I was in the back of the room at the time). They claimed it was ADHD, I called it not being able to hear...
I got bullied by the teachers and students at this school for reasons that I'd rather not mention. I then went to another small private school, this time a Protestant Christian school. Most people there were warm and accepting, but the class size was very small and most of the kids had known each other for years and years. It was then that the school district decided to make our lives living hell for using the FM system. The two that they sent us refused to work, the one that did work had been beaten to hell and back and needed a new battery, and finally, just died out completely. My mom, tired of dealing with the government that treated me like a "walking hearing aid," gave in and bought her own FM system for me. For this, I am eternally grateful. I then went to a Catholic high school where I attend now.
Throughout the first year I used the FM system, however, in the second year, it became very hard. The teachers, when they walked around, would bounce the FM system around their body, making staticy noise. Teachers sneezing with the FM system was never nice either. Eventually, I decided just to stop bringing it. I am actually able to hear the teachers better without it, for reasons previously mentioned. I feel this (that is, acting like a normal student) is the great reward of all the hard work that I put into learning to talk.
I tried to be as active as I could be. I tried a great many sports and extracurricular activities, some working, some not, for various reasons. I went from piano to soccer to basketball to viola to chess to swimming (JO Level), just to name a few. All these, I showed up on the second day hating. However, I had always enjoyed watersports such as waterskiing, wakeboarding, swimming, and sailing. When I got to my high school and found that they had a sailing team, I was ecstatic. I immediately tried out and got in. Sailing is very rarely done by deaf people for a couple of reasons, firstly, that it requires a great amount of communication. Secondly, you get very wet. At first, I started without hearing aids, but that severely reduced the amount of communication I could get. I just decided to roll the dice with hearing aids. My folks got water insurance on them, just in case
. I continue to sail and love it, hence my nickname.Overall, while I would have liked to tell a lot more about myself, there is only so much room, and I fear that even this is too much and you will all be requesting a TL;DR. I can only hope that this has been an inspiring piece to some.
to AllDeaf forum. Wow, sailerboy, that is a lot of information about yourself. Very interesting. On your username, sailerboy, it would be better for the word sailor instead of sailer if the spelling is correct. But that is all right as long as you like your username. Nobody is perfect. 
