What do you do in your spare time?

Destiny's Sister said:
. Interesting...second person to say that here. I'm new here so I'm just getting to know how people cope/accept/adapt to their varying levels of hearing/deafness. I guess I can understand the desire to be seen as 'normal'. I must admit, when I first got hearing aids I wanted them to be as invisible as possible. But then I realized that I preferred to be seen as HOH rather than 'stupid' or 'odd' or 'slow'.
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Depends on the person I guess. I was born deaf so.. it's all I know. I would just tell people if I am having trouble. Though to be honest I grew up practically the only deaf kid (with hearing aids) all the way through high school so never really learned to advocate that much for myself or that I even could. It was just 'normal' for me. If I had had a chance to be around more deaf/HOH kids maybe things would have been different.. I don't know for sure.

I do get that it may be better to prefer to be seen as deaf/HOH rather than 'stupid'/'slow'/'odd'... been there done that... but it's a tricky thing.. because many times with job hunting... I find that the minute that recruiters or whoever is hiring finds out I'm deaf...I get one of two responses...1)hesitation and still viewed as "odd" etc to outright never getting back to me and 2) "oh okay cool.. no problem"- more and more but I do still see the "well we decided to go with somebody else even though you have the exact right skills...".

might be sour grapes but- my perspective...at least right now. :)
 
More and more I feel like I'm just clutching at straws here. I'm getting some wonderful suggestions from people here and yet I feel as if I 'hear too well' to fit in with the deaf world and 'hear too badly' to fit in with the hearing world. I'm frozen, like a 'deer in the headlights'. I suppose part of it is knowing I have a tendency to make choices that keep me 'on the outside' - from the professions and hobbies I choose, to the people I choose to hang around, to the lifestyle choices I make. I think I've just got to get a whole lot better at making choices that are good for me, especially in light of my limitations.
 
Destiny's Sister said:
More and more I feel like I'm just clutching at straws here. I'm getting some wonderful suggestions from people here and yet I feel as if I 'hear too well' to fit in with the deaf world and 'hear too badly' to fit in with the hearing world. I'm frozen, like a 'deer in the headlights'. I suppose part of it is knowing I have a tendency to make choices that keep me 'on the outside' - from the professions and hobbies I choose, to the people I choose to hang around, to the lifestyle choices I make. I think I've just got to get a whole lot better at making choices that are good for me, especially in light of my limitations.
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You have a lot more common with some people here than you think :). That's me to a T... even after I went to Gallaudet- my first exposure to the Deaf world (and loved it). I still kind of struggle at times but a large part of that is just my plain shyness with people in "real time" in general... hearing or deaf. Do what's best for you. There's always going to be crabby, rotten people in both the hearing and deaf side.. but more often than not there's generally wonderful people in both camps. There are d/Deaf who will welcome you and help you with signing (as long as you don't make it look like it's a dang lesson lol- there's a great That Deaf Guy comic strip that illustrates this :) ).
 
DeafDucky said:
You have a lot more common with some people here than you think :). That's me to a T... even after I went to Gallaudet- my first exposure to the Deaf world (and loved it). I still kind of struggle at times but a large part of that is just my plain shyness with people in "real time" in general... hearing or deaf. Do what's best for you. There's always going to be crabby, rotten people in both the hearing and deaf side.. but more often than not there's generally wonderful people in both camps. There are d/Deaf who will welcome you and help you with signing (as long as you don't make it look like it's a dang lesson lol- there's a great That Deaf Guy comic strip that illustrates this :) ).
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Thanks for this. And do you have a link to the comic strip you mentioned?
 
Destiny's Sister said:
I feel as if I 'hear too well' to fit in with the deaf world and 'hear too badly' to fit in with the hearing world.
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Everyone here is the same, a lot of deaf people were raised orally, without access to the sign language. Although a lot of people believe that we can lipread with 100% accuracy, in reality, we just guess or pretend to understand. I'm too in between.

The point is to act, advocate for yourself, educate yourself and people around.

That Deaf Guy
http://www.thatdeafguy.com/
 
Huh. Very interesting thread! I've been that way myself, largely isolated socially. For the better part of my life back in school, I had a few deaf friends that eventually moved out well before I went to my first college. Didn't have alot of interaction with hearing people, though what little I did have with them were friendly. All this changed when I went to RIT, it was amazing to see so many deaf people signing to each other! Afterwards, its been back to square one since moving out to Hawaii from Iowa. There's a deaf club in Hilo, but that's practically the opposite of where I live, too far away.
 
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