Meet and Greet

Well hello there. Fancy meeting you here.

Since I'm writing this blog for the purpose of discussing my goal of becoming a Sign Language Interpreter and achieving a BA in ASL; which has gotten more questions than I realized I would field...please allow me to explain some things about myself.

I am 25 years old and was born with High Frequency Hearing Loss. This means I cannot hear most unvoiced constantants (p, s, v, d, b, f). I struggle with whispers, I can hear them but often cannot make out what is being said. Over the years, I have gotten really good at always facing a person when I'm speaking with them and making a lot of eye contact (hey, I'm looking at your lips too!)  and just smiling and nodding. Sometimes this has gotten me in trouble. More on that later.

I took eight years of speech therapy as a child to "fix" the way I spoke because I learned without the sounds I couldn't hear. Speech therapy, once a week to a young child felt like torture, but I am eternally grateful to my therapist Mrs.Bay and my parents. They are the reasons I don't sound disabled or Southern--I have a fairly neutral accent. When taking speech, in my case, you are taught to over pronounce and over-enunciate each word with the knowledge eventually the over-corrections will fade.

Partnered with speech, I got my first set of hearing aids when I was 4 years old. Apparently, after getting fitted with hearing aids and walking outside of the building for the first time wearing this highly amplified world on my ears, I had one question. "What's that 'whoosh whoosh' sound?," I asked my Mom and she replied, "The wind," and then I assume she cried at how precious I was, as this story is repeated to me and others frequently. So yes, I could not hear the wind or a lot of the times birds and hundreds of other things but for years I comfortably wore my hearing aids and COULD hear everything and it was awesome.

Alas, everything changes.

I switched schools, got older, and suddenly it was really hard to explain hearing aids to people. Kids are mean. Teenagers are crueller. Sometimes the quippy jokes they made when I finally got up the courage to wear my hearing aids again hurt my feelings so much that I put them away. I wasn't this big fount of courage and eventually, I decided, I can't handle that. I can't answer the questions. So, at my own expense, I put the hearing aids up. I coped the best I could. I made it a "non-part" of me. When it did come up, I educated people,  but even my closest friends didn't know the level of my hearing loss. Here is, partly, why I share this information: yesterday I got fitted with my first new pair of hearing aids in almost 10 years and the change in technology is stunning. Soon, I'll have hearing aids that are bluetooth capable! I might upgrade my phone to match. Plus, the sound quality was phenomenal...and it made me realize, what have I been doing? Why did I wait this long? Never let other people stand in the way of your own health and happiness.

All of this being said, there is a stigma with hearing loss that shouldn't exist. People make jokes and are ignorant and it is our job to gently teach. Please don't refer to hearing aids as "old people technology"--the age of patients getting hearing aids is younger and younger, often starting in the mid-40's. Keep that in mind, dear reader, while rocking out to your iPod full blast.

So, why ASL? I relate on a personal level. I think it's a beautiful and challenging language. The level of expression in it is gorgeous. I want to know that should my hearing ever get worse, I've done what I can to educate myself.

That's about it for now.

xo

Glynnis