Archive for March 2017

Celebrating Nine Months Of Hearing

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I am nine months into my journey of living in the "hearing"* world.

I would love to tell you that transitioning into the hearing world has been as easy as getting a pair of glasses.

If I said that, I would be lying. I know this for a fact,  you see not only am I person who has a hearing impairment, I am also a person who had an eye impairment. I wore glasses or contacts my whole life.

I understand fully what it is like to get glasses or contacts and then see the trees and the leaves more fully.

Learning to hear is nothing like that.

I mean nothing like that. At all.

Many in the hearing world will say to me, "Oh yes, I understand, I have glasses and I remember the first day I got them, and I saw leaves on the trees!"

I smile and nod in agreement.

But the reality deep down in my soul is this, it is not the same.

Transitioning to the hearing world takes so much more effort. It is exhausting.

The best way I can explain it is this, getting glasses is not exhausting.

When you get glasses, you see. You put them on, and you see. It is awesome.

When you get hearing devices you have to learn what you are hearing.

Every sound you hear, your brain needs to learn. So one sound at a time you are startled.

The first time you hear the sound it is super loud. When I say super loud, I mean super loud. It takes your breath away.

Add to that... this fact....

When you hear that sound, you have no idea what it is.

So, then, you have to turn to those around you; your kids, your husband, your friends, strangers, who ever is near.

Some times with fear, and some times in aw, you ask them, "What was that?"

After you learn what it is, you breath a sigh of relief, knowing that you have one more sound that you do not have to be afraid of.

New sounds never end.

The hearing world has SO many sounds I have never heard a day in my life.

Slowly I am getting used to your hearing world.

It is a beautiful world a lot of the time.

Though I will be honest, often, I retreat back to my very quiet, much more silent world, the only world I have known my whole life.

The world I did not know was different than yours.

But I don't give up.

I start all over again every morning.

Each morning when I put my hearing aids in, I take a deep breath.

I love hearing your world. Most of the time. As overwhelming as it is, it is beautiful at the same time.

I know I am not hearing everything.

But I do hear more than I have ever heard.

For that I am grateful.

Truly truly grateful!

#deafHOHproud

#happyhearing

#learning2hear










* My hearing aids help me hear. Do I hear like the hearing world? I doubt it. Technology can only bring me so much understanding of the hearing world.