Know Who You Are
Today, as I sit resting, I was thinking about my identity. Where do I fit? How do I fit? What do I fit? Then I realized, for years I just never really felt the need to “fit in” because I was already an outcast due to having a hearing loss. I have been asked who do I associate with more, the D/deaf, hard of hearing, late-deafen or hearing. My answer is hearing and hard of hearing. I really did not meet another student like me in my old school district until my last year in middle school as this student was a transfer from another school district. I didn’t meet another individual like me until after I transferred to another college to pursue my four year degree. However, I did have an audiologist, very briefly, who was hard of hearing and she was just a positive radiant and an inspiration. I say hearing because I grew up in the hearing world even though I was a hard of hearing individual. I didn’t get invites to parties or go out or really hang out with my hearing peers outsi