If we learned anything in 2020 it’s that masks are easy to hide behind. We can hide our face, our personalities, our germs, and of course, our mouths. I wrote at the beginning of the pandemic about how difficult lipreading is when everyone’s wearing masks, but what I’ve learned since then is that you can tell what kind of person someone is by how they behave about their masks.
Continue readingmental health
Live from my living room
So it’s been awhile. I haven’t felt the need to talk much about my hearing lately because, at 3.5 years post-implant, there’s not a lot of new things going on. I go through my days alone, spend a lot of my workdays on the phone (!), and have little issues in my daily life unless I forget to actually put my hearing devices on in the morning. But I want to address a few issues for people with hearing loss in the current pandemic that I have personally run into.
Continue readingLiving a deaf girl’s adventure tale
I’ve spent the past three years writing about how music has changed for me – from being a hearing person, to a deaf person, to a cochlear implant user. The song that I keep coming back to as my example piece is “Take On Me” by A-ha. I’ve talked about how each time I listen to it I hear something new – a nuance that I missed before. Well, recently I got to have the ultimate listening experience as I caught A-ha live twice on a visit to the UK. It was both amazing and awful and I loved every second of it.
Continue readingShe used to be mine
It’s been over 4 months since my last blog – which is good, in the sense that it means nothing major has changed with my hearing. My LIFE on the other hand… In any case, I did make some pretty major changes to my hearing programs last month, and again earlier this month – and they have pros and cons. One of them being that I cut my music program completely!
Continue readingEveryday devices
I came across an audition notice today for “Clue: The Musical” and for a fleeting moment thought I should audition. Every time I hear about this show, my heart drops a little bit and I feel the sadness of my loss all over again. For many people who are hard-of-hearing, the words “hearing loss” are not used. For me, it is very much a part of me – it was a very big loss in my life that caused depression and PTSD. I don’t believe I would be close to where I am today if I hadn’t fully embraced, grieved, and dealt with that loss. So yes, I am perfectly okay with identifying as a person with hearing loss.