“I had tubes put into my ears when I was 2. which isn’t necessarily an uncommon thing. They fell out like they were supposed to but left holes on my eardrums that never closed up. Since they didn’t close up on either side, my first surgery to try and close the holes in my ears was in seventh grade. They did three of those surgeries but the fourth was finally to restore my hearing. Unfortunately, they struck my taste nerve in the process so the surgery resulted in the loss of taste on the right side of my tongue and still I couldn’t hear. Because it had been so long since they had a breakthrough in my hearing, I just decided I was done and got a hearing aid. I might end up doing another surgery between high school and college, but I have to wait and see how I feel.

Before I got my hearing aid, I couldn’t hear anything out of my right ear. So sitting in class I always had to sit in the front of the class and have to sit away from loud things like the furnace or something. Now that I have it I can hear really well. I can even change the settings so if I’m in the cafeteria and trying to listen to my friends I adjust it to make the background noise not so loud so I can focus on what they’re saying. I was really upset that I couldn’t hear because if I was walking in the halls with a friend I would have to ask them to repeat themselves to the point that they would get so frustrated eventually they just wouldn’t tell me anything they were saying. This made me even more frustrated because it wasn’t something I could control. I feel like I would be in a worse place than I am now so I’m so fortune that I was able to get it. Thinking about people that can’t hear is so heartbreaking because I know what it feels like.”