swimmistressusa
New Member
- Joined
- Jun 14, 2021
- Messages
- 3
- Reaction score
- 2
Hello All,
Short Intro - My name is Cassie. I'm 34 and I live in Harrisonburg, VA. I am profoundly deaf on one side and have "hearing loss" or deaf gain on my other side. Growing up I was never was told about a deaf community of any kind until I worked with a Deaf employee and he completely opened up my eyes and made me realize I have missed out on such a great community & culture. I started learning ASL late march of 2021 and looking for any help that I can get and I am hoping to make some awesome friends along the way.
Longer Intro-
I have been deaf on my left side for most of my life from nerve damage due to physical trauma from repeated abuse from my biological mother and her boyfriend before I was adopted when I was 4 years old. My right ear; I can hear in enough to understand speech if I get close and they are loud without background noise and I can lipread them and I know what the topic is so I can put the pieces together although it is extremely straining and now I would rather just use other means (primarily ASL) and just recently chatted to my manager about it and I am fully supported and she as well as many other SBUX partners at my Starbucks store know ASL to some degree.
Growing up was a struggle. I went to a mainstream school and was really challenging at times. I was told repeatedly that I would just have to cope better, lip read better, get better at predicting words, and memorizing each persons speech patterns, and body gestures and I did that but at a cost of wanting to not want to socialize; and mentality being exhausted. When I was introduced and learned ASL and used it - it was magical and I fell in love with it as communication became easier and more fluid mentally for me if a person signed to me. For the first time in my life I didn't have to struggle so hard to communicate and realized that a language that could have benefited me greatly was not given to me due to people wanting me to fit into their world - to blend in and not be seen as having deafness as I was told and raised to believe it was bad and I hated myself for it. I no longer hide it and it is such a great feeling to finally have internal peace; to not feel like I have to be cloaked in society to go unnoticed, or feel like I have to hide and frankly my relationships with people have gotten better and some of my friends started learning sign... for me and they love it too!
My proud Deaf co-worker that I worked with briefly completely opened up my eyes and let me know that there is a whole community that understands me, that that I can be a part of, that I can relate to, but more importantly identify with. I am so joyed that I don't feel alone, and that I can now see my deafness as a gain and not as a negative part of me like I did for most of my life.
I've never been happier to be a part of a community and I look forward to diving deep into the culture, the community, and catching up on so much I missed out on; as well as continue to learn and perfect ASL and hopefully make amazing friends along the way.
p.s. ~ I would love people who are willing to help me improve my signing. I know enough to hold a short conversation without too much difficulty but I need a lot more practice! Also - I am open to an suggestions, tips, guidance, wisdom, practice, and / or any kind of information that you all think could be helpful.
Thanks for reading my novel.
Cassie
Short Intro - My name is Cassie. I'm 34 and I live in Harrisonburg, VA. I am profoundly deaf on one side and have "hearing loss" or deaf gain on my other side. Growing up I was never was told about a deaf community of any kind until I worked with a Deaf employee and he completely opened up my eyes and made me realize I have missed out on such a great community & culture. I started learning ASL late march of 2021 and looking for any help that I can get and I am hoping to make some awesome friends along the way.
Longer Intro-
I have been deaf on my left side for most of my life from nerve damage due to physical trauma from repeated abuse from my biological mother and her boyfriend before I was adopted when I was 4 years old. My right ear; I can hear in enough to understand speech if I get close and they are loud without background noise and I can lipread them and I know what the topic is so I can put the pieces together although it is extremely straining and now I would rather just use other means (primarily ASL) and just recently chatted to my manager about it and I am fully supported and she as well as many other SBUX partners at my Starbucks store know ASL to some degree.
Growing up was a struggle. I went to a mainstream school and was really challenging at times. I was told repeatedly that I would just have to cope better, lip read better, get better at predicting words, and memorizing each persons speech patterns, and body gestures and I did that but at a cost of wanting to not want to socialize; and mentality being exhausted. When I was introduced and learned ASL and used it - it was magical and I fell in love with it as communication became easier and more fluid mentally for me if a person signed to me. For the first time in my life I didn't have to struggle so hard to communicate and realized that a language that could have benefited me greatly was not given to me due to people wanting me to fit into their world - to blend in and not be seen as having deafness as I was told and raised to believe it was bad and I hated myself for it. I no longer hide it and it is such a great feeling to finally have internal peace; to not feel like I have to be cloaked in society to go unnoticed, or feel like I have to hide and frankly my relationships with people have gotten better and some of my friends started learning sign... for me and they love it too!
My proud Deaf co-worker that I worked with briefly completely opened up my eyes and let me know that there is a whole community that understands me, that that I can be a part of, that I can relate to, but more importantly identify with. I am so joyed that I don't feel alone, and that I can now see my deafness as a gain and not as a negative part of me like I did for most of my life.
I've never been happier to be a part of a community and I look forward to diving deep into the culture, the community, and catching up on so much I missed out on; as well as continue to learn and perfect ASL and hopefully make amazing friends along the way.
p.s. ~ I would love people who are willing to help me improve my signing. I know enough to hold a short conversation without too much difficulty but I need a lot more practice! Also - I am open to an suggestions, tips, guidance, wisdom, practice, and / or any kind of information that you all think could be helpful.
Thanks for reading my novel.
Cassie
