Born Deaf

That's right. I was born deaf: 80% in one ear and 50% in the other. I never knew this until after Christmas when my mom and I were driving down to TN from WI. I had tubes in my ears when I was younger, but I always thought it was due to an imbalance problem (which I also had) and had no idea it was to rectify my hearing inability! My mom said she didn't figure it out until I was around three years old. I was in the bathtub and my mom would talk to me. If I was looking at her, I'd respond, but if I was looking away or she covered her mouth with her hand, I had no idea what was going on. Apparently I had gotten pretty good at reading lips (a talent I would pay for now).

Thinking of my life and my love of music, it's somewhat baffling to think of what my life would have been without being able to hear. It's like that "would you rather" game. Would you rather be born deaf or blind? Well, apparently my body would have rather been born deaf-- although it is definitely allowing my eyesight to degenerate over time.

Since I've gained knowledge of this news, I have been taking into account various situations in which I can use it to my advantage. What was that you said? I'm sorry, I was born deaf, have a hard time hearing sometimes... In truth, I do have a hard time hearing sometimes. Rather than asking people to repeat themselves over and over, I generally try to just go with the flow and guess what they said. Note: this hardly ever actually works. That's right. I pretty much end up sucking it up and admitting that I couldn't hear them because I've made a fool out of myself. Ah well. To each his own. To me-- the mule award of the day. What? I'm sorry, I can't hear too well-- born deaf, you know.