Hello My name's Maeve, I'm nearly 17 years old, and I'm hearing. I'm interested in learning about deaf culture and sign language, so I thought this would be a great place to learn more and meet people Recently, while volunteering at the hospital, there was a patient on my floor who was deaf. At the time, I only knew a few basic signs like "how are you," "want water?" and "my name is ___." But since she can read lips and speak out loud, we were able to communicate. She was really friendly and funny and I really enjoyed getting to meet her. It was the first time I'd met a deaf person and saw people signing together (her and her family), and it has motivated me to learn sign language.