I wore hearing aids from when I was 2 until I was 12. When I was 12 I refused to wear them anymore because I was a vain pre-teen. I regret that choice in some ways, but it made me really improve my speech reading which is something I don't regret.
2 weeks ago when my hearing suddenly dropped from a mederatly severe-severe range to well within the profound range my hearing aids stopped working for me. I am still waiting for new hearing aids (MONDAY
) without hearing aids I can't really hear anything. I heard a building being demolished when I was literally right beside it. That is the only sound I have really heard for the past two weeks. At first I wouldn't tell anyone about being Deaf because I didn't feel comfortable with it myself. It made going out very difficult and frustrating. Yesterday I was doing errands and I went to a college that I applied to to get some information from their access centre. I was trying to find the access centre and I asked the woman at the front desk where it was. She had an accent and I couldn't understand her. I told her I am Deaf and without thinking twice about she grabbed a piece of paper and wrote down everything for me. She did this for our whole conversation, reducing both of our frustration. I always carry a note book on me but I only use it with friends, it was amazing how much easier communication because once she knew. I guess my regret is not being confident and proud to be Deaf, because once I was communicating with people became much easier.
