I ran into severe hearing loss when I was about 3 years old. My parents and my audiologist couldn't quite figure out how i became deaf. At first, they thought it was a disorder called: Autoimmune Hearing Loss or other sometimes known as Auto Inner Ear Disease. AIED is a rare autoimmune disorder, meaning that the immune system attacks a part of the body. This attack on the inner ear results in a rapid hearing loss. Sometimes people with this condition also experience balance problems. Which is why you can probably notice i am sometimes clumsy, but not always. I got my first pair of hearing aids when i was about the age of 4. I started having intense speech therapy starting at age 4 as well. I was on medicine called Steroids. Not the muscle-building kind of medicine, its a medicine that is suppose to help you get some of your hearing back. But it doesn't always work for people. I was pretty lucky at the time. I had got some of my hearing back in my right ear, but even up until now, i still don't really remember anything of when i used to be hearing before i was 3.
So then fast forward to age 6, I went to Horace Mann school, where i met my best friends.I stayed at Horace Mann from 2nd grade up to 4th grade.At age 8, I gotten my first cochlear implant on my left side.I wanted to be able to hear and learn new things. I was curious. Even with a cochlear implant, I am still deaf when i take it off. I am hearing when i put it on, but I am still a deaf person inside.At the beginning of 4th grade; I went to st.Rita's school for the deaf. St.Rita's is a pretty strict school. We had to wear uniforms, wake up super early than your normal high school time and get home late. I had to get up about 4AM and i don't usually get home around 4:30 from school. I didn't like the idea of getting home so late. Because i never really got to see my family. I left St.Rita school for the deaf in the middle of my 4th grade year, and went back to mainstreaming schools.
I didn't have that much friends back then when I went back to mainstreaming schools. People didn't know me all that well, and had judged behind my back before. I was miserable back then. As I entered Middle school, I started doing the centerville band. I decided to take up percussion, because it was more easy for me since i was deaf. I was pretty excited learning how to play percussion. So then in the 7th grade, my history teachers wanted to do a September 11th memorial project. They had us do community work for whatever length of time and make a huge chain, and sign our name on a huge plastic banner to send to New York city to the fire department where they risked their lives to ground zero. They asked me and my interpreter to sign the U.S constitution to the whole middle school that day, and teach the middle school how to do that. I was pretty proud. Because then, people started to get to know me. People were asking me a bunch of questions about me being deaf and sign language. I felt like I was representing the deaf community. And i got to do it again in the 8th grade. My old history teacher recorded that day and made a DVD of it for future middle school students to watch for Constitution day. That day, i won't even forget at all.
As i was getting into high school, I was thinking about joining the Centerville Jazz Band. My aunt, who was sick with cancer at the time wanted me to do it. She was basically the one why i got into the jazz band. I have tried out for the Centerville Front Ensemble, or known as the Pit. I was really happy that i got into the band. My aunt was ecstatic for me. The only part that i was sad about is when she was sick with cancer, she never really came to see me. I really wanted her to see me play on my vibraphone at the time. I didn't understand what was going on and why my mom kept going over to my aunt's house to take care of her. But then my mom explained to me why, and i immediately understood. At the end of January, my aunt lisa passed away with cancer. I was really sad about it because my aunt lisa was one of my closest aunts. I never wanted to stop doing the band, because she was the one that wanted me to do it, and now, I want to keep doing it, I love doing the band. I love having to challenge myself trying to memorize 10 pages or so for a 10 minute show.
During high school, I was becoming more and more known. People were wanting to learn sign language from me, asking me a bunch of questions, and so much more. I have been interviewed by BOA (Bands Of America) Music for all company, WGI (Winter Guard International), and featuring in a centerville drumline movie called Rhythm Generation which will come out soon hopefully. And, i was pretty surprised how people stood up for me when bad things happened to me. At age 16 years old in the winter i started losing my hearing. My audiologist and I don't know if it was my autoimmune disorder again, or it was my hearing aid caused by being in winter drumline--indoors. We tried protecting it, but it never worked. Up until now i have just got my 2nd implantation on my right ear. I now have a Nucleus 5. I'm a junior in Centerville High school, I have been playing the marimba for 2 years in the Centerville Fall and Winter Drumline and is teaching some hearing people how to sign. I'm proud of who I am. And I know some people are too. Nobody is really going to take that away from me. Being deaf is a part of who i am. And that's who i intend to be.
