Challenged
Some say I am disabled,
But you know that isn't true.
I simply have a challenge
A little different from you.
My slight inconvience, has taught me
Things they could not know.
Each obstacle is a victory,
Enabling me to grow.
I'm not really any different,
I cry, I laugh, I snore.
I don't want to be treated
As if I'm not a person anymore.
Out of good intentions,
People are afraid to let me try.
But sometimes I have to fall,
And sometimes I need to cry.
God gives me strength and dignity,
And the courage to be all I can be.
For He doesn't see me as disabled,
He just sees me as me.
Leslie W. Ortega - a person with MS
My life started on Jan. 13th. I was born, in the early morn to the world of silnce. The reason no body seems to know. Why me? Was the questin the family often asked. I grew up not knowing sound. My mother, forcing me to go to a speacial school as soon as I hit one. I attend a school for the deaf in
London, England. There my parents and I were taught about the deaf culture.
I learned there a few simple signs to speak to my family. When I turned the age of 3, my mother decided, to take me away from that school. She did not want me learning signs. She wanted me to speak, like a normal little boy. Soon I attended a different school. I learned to feel for vibes and use my vocie..
I when through days and days of training..
soon I said my first word..Mum...
The family tried to fit me with hearing aids, but how hard they tried, I could not hear a thing. The doctors than told my parents that they may never help, but my parents forced me to wear them anyways.
I grow up pretty fast, not knowing that sound ever exsited...
I grow close to my brothers, some how I could understand them.. as odd as it may seem. I forgot the signs I was once taught way back when...
When I turned 5, I knew how to read lips quite well. I was sent to a normal hearing school in London. The school was a privite school.. but I was treated like everyone else. I was given no speacial favors, nothing.
I still attended the school for the deaf too.. I still worked on my speaking and lip reading.
7 years old, I had made mates.. both at the school for the deaf and at normal school. I became mad at myself for being born this way.. I began to see.. not everyone out there is deaf. I asked a lot of questins..
for once, I learned the hard truth.. I learned I was different.
Different from all the rest.
10 years old, My pa's job got a transfer to the USA. I had to say good bye to the world, I once knew ever so well. I said good bye to my best mate, Charles. America.. I was now a American.
My mum, she decided, that all the schools in the US were not right for me, even the school for the deaf. I was taken in as her student. She home taught me and my brothers and later my sister. She treated me like a normal little boy. Mates here in the USA were hard for me to make. I was young, and very shy. Often I would go out.. try to talk to someone and they would laugh at me, right to my face. I soon.. became quite a loner. Family trips to England became the thing I longed for.
11 years old, My parents and I were given a chocie, was I to have a inplant?? was I to hear somethings?? It was my hardest chocie, that I would ever make.
I chose not to..
Why?? you ask?? Because, I was scared. What would it be like to hear?
I lived so many years without it. Plus, the doctors said it was such a little chance it would work, and the opperation was new.
I soon relized, I was born this way.. I can not change the way I am..
I was made this way, god made me this way. I grew to except myself. I am who I am.. and I AM DEAF.
Nich's UpDates
I am now, of the age 17. I am growing up. I have decided to take a ASL (american sign language) class with my brothers against my mum's wish. I think deep down though, mum respects my choice. I now have gained a comman knowlege of ASL. I don't wear my hearing aids much anymore. I don't see a reason to. I have became less shy and made some great deaf mates from around the world. I plan to attend college at a deaf college somewhere to the east as soon as I finish up high school here at home in 2000. I want to be a doctor, maybe find the cure for Cancer someday. I may go to college back home in London? I looked into it and found a few good schools but I am not to sure I want to be that far from the family I love so much.
Also my sister Joy was just dianosed as being hearing impaired. She is learning sign and also speaking very well. Hearing aids seem to help her, which is a good thing. We love her to pieces.
Up Date
Welcome to the year 2000! I just turned 18! Life has been going great. My brother just had a baby girl, Liza Rose. She is a cutie. Joy is a fast signer now. She also speaks very well. I am still looking into colleges. I don't have long..*L*
You Have to be deaf to understand the deaf What is it like to "hear" a hand?
You have to be deaf to understand. What is it like to be a small child,
In a school, in a room void of sound --
With a teacher who talks and talks and talks;
And then when she does come around to you,
She expects you to know what she's said? You have to be deaf to understand.
Or the teacher thinks that to make you smart,
You must first learn how to talk with your voice;
So mumbo-jumbo with hands on your face
For hours and hours without patience or end,
Until out comes a faint resembling sound? You have to be deaf to understand.
What is it like to be curious, To thirst for knowledge you can call your own,
With an inner desire that's set on fire --
And you ask a brother, sister, or friend
Who looks in answer and says, "Never Mind"?
You have to be deaf to understand. What it is like in a corner to stand,
Though there's nothing you've done really wrong,
Other than try to make use of your hands To a silent peer to communicate
A thought that comes to your mind all at once?
You have to be deaf to understand. What is it like to be shouted at
When one thinks that will help you to hear;
Or misunderstand the words of a friend Who is trying to make a joke clear,
And you don't get the point because he's failed?
You have to be deaf to understand. What is it like to be laughed in the face
When you try to repeat what is said;
Just to make sure that you've understood,
And you find that the words were misread --
And you want to cry out, "Please help me, friend"?
You have to be deaf to understand. What is it like to have to depend
Upon one who can hear to phone a friend; Or place a call to a business firm
And be forced to share what's personal, and,
Then find that your message wasn't made clear?
You have to be deaf to understand. What is it like to be deaf and alone
In the company of those who can hear -- And you only guess as you go along,
For no one's there with a helping hand,
As you try to keep up with words and song? You have to be deaf to understand.
What is it like on the road of life
To meet with a stranger who opens his mouth --
And speaks out a line at a rapid pace;
And you can't understand the look in his face
Because it is new and you're lost in the race?
You have to be deaf to understand. What is it like to comprehend
Some nimble fingers that paint the scene, And make you smile and feel serene,
With the "spoken word" of the moving hand
That makes you part of the word at large? You have to be deaf to understand.
What is it like to "hear" a hand? Yes, you have to be deaf to understand.
(Written at 1971 by Willard J. Madsen, professor of journalism at
Gallaudet University. This poem was translated into seven different
languages and reprinted in publications, including DEAF HERITAGE, p.380.)
Back to Page 1
Links for the Deaf and HOH
Deafscape
My mate Kari's page (hard of hearing)
Phill's page..lots of dolphins here (he is deaf like me)
Deaf Linx Page..lots of links to sites for the deaf and HOH
Page that has links to many schools for people who are disabled
Want to chat about deafness??
Self Help for Hard of Hearing
Deafnation
Deaf Watch
DeafZONE
Email: nicholie_scotts@yahoo.com
