What did you say? Pardon me? Say that again. Sorry I missed what you just said.
These are the words I say when I can't hear. I know you are probably thinking ' why wouldn't you be able to hear?' Well let me get something straight...I'm hard of hearing. Yea I'm one of those people who has to wear hearing aids. And I'm one of those people who can't really pronounce words very well.
Everyday at school I fight to hear better, to get good grades, to be able to get other students to understand what it is like to not hear 100%. I have to deal with different accents that I can't understand. I have to put in twice the effort just to get my certain needs reached.
Im tired of having to do that. I want people to understand. I want hearing people to learn to sign so I can understand. I'm surprised that I can sing and dance at an arts school where a lot of people judge other people. If I speak in sign language to my hearing specialist, people stare at me.
Why is that? I don't know. People tell me about cochlear implants but I don't want it. It's weird because it's hard for me to hear, but being hard of hearing is so much of who I am that I can't lose it. If I got something to hear 100%, I would probably not like it.
Being hard of hearing has made me stronger. I used to be the shy girl who doesn't speak her mind, but that girl is gone. Yes she is gone. The girl that speaks her mind and isn't afraid to stand up for herself is here. My dad tells me," You are standing up. You are doing good, it is making you stronger." I believe it. So I want to be happy about being hard of hearing.
I want to feel proud to want to become a famous singer and dancer to inspire hard of hearing and deaf people. I want people to understand that its hard enough for me to hear. So reader please understand. One day if you learn sign language, and see a deaf person, and walk up to them and say hi in sign language, you will make a huge difference. So please reader, learn sign language, it will make a big difference and you will love it.
