I always had auditory training to focus and listen in a noisy environment. However, as I entered the high school years, I realized that I enjoy socializing and being among friends despite the background noise.
‘Hear’ I Am
I wrote a book, “Hear I Am,” several years ago about helping people with hearing loss and other disabilities to be able to graduate from college and work at a job with the proper accommodations in place. In the book I model through examples about how I persevered in college and then in the workplace.
A Silent Noise: Tinnitus
As I type this, I’m currently on an airplane, flying back from Colorado to New York. With each passing second, each word, I can feel myself becoming more aware of the noise around me. It’s a very peculiar sound—loud, but not loud, invisible, but present—existing alongside myself and the other passengers on the plane.
Hearing Loss Is My Superpower
Despite receiving a cochlear implant at age 22 months, and being mainstreamed into my local public school district from kindergarten, by late middle school into high school I had became bitter and resentful about my dependence on hearing technology. I saw it as a burden.