In the past few weeks leading up, I’ve been thinking about what I could write for this post; I wanted to keep it positive, talk about everything you gain. But it was proving harder than I thought. Not because I didn’t have any examples of positive experiences and memories - I have plenty - but because I was feeling so negative towards my deafness and hearing aids that I felt I was being fake, like I couldn’t truly get into the spirit of it.
I’ve been having issues with my hearing aids - from the hearing aid itself, down to the tubes, mould and fit - for the last year. Obviously with covid, it has proven extremely challenging to get these issues sorted (I’ve only just finally managed to get an appointment aha!).
This past week was the most frustrating of all - ironically it happened just as Deaf Awareness Week started, typical right? Long story short, I was left with one hearing aid that wasn’t working great either. With it being bank holiday weekend, trying to find replacements was proving extremely difficult, and it was looking like a few days before any would arrive.
This happened on the Sunday night, knowing I had work on the Monday morning - I was dreading it. As I already struggled with masks, I knew it was going to be tough. I’m not going to lie, had a few breakdowns over those few days, but my gosh I realised I was surrounded be so many wonderful work colleagues and family. My colleagues went out of their way to adapt for me, making sure to get my attention, helping me with customers, even signing whatever they could so that it was easier for me.
One colleague, who is also a friend of mine, went on their break and watched a video on 100 basic signs, just to help make my time at work easier because they knew how much I was struggling. I was overwhelmed with all the help everyone offered, the support the gave; it was truly heartwarming in moments when I felt so isolated and alone. No one expected me to “get on with it” or “get over it”; no body said “it will be sorted in a few days”, because they all knew that didn’t solve the problem in the moment; no one expected anything of me, but they also didn’t try do things for me unless I asked, because they knew I needed to feel I still had independence.
So while I was cursing my deafness, and hating my hearing aids, everyone around me was taking everything they had ever learnt about deaf awareness and using it the best they could. That showed me that although it seems like there is so much to do in terms of awareness, so much progress has already been made.
I think back to this time last year, when I was still waiting to do my final sign language exam, and I felt like I lived in two very different worlds. When it came to my hearing loss and sign language, I felt like I lived in two different worlds; its hard to explain, but I felt as though it was a part of my that felt separate to my everyday life, something that wasn’t discussed in my daily life regularly, even by those closest to me.
Yet here we are a year on. I use sign language at my workplace, people lower their masks so I can lip read - masks have helped people to understand lipreading better and the struggle of people not facing you, people are eager to learn more, asking questions - the list goes on.
While there is always more progress that can be made, SO much progress has been made, and for that I can incredibly impressed and grateful - it cannot go unnoticed! So lets celebrate and recognise it, all year round!
To end this post, I just want to say thank you to everyone, who has done and continues to do anything to help raise awareness all year round, in any way; continuing to bridge the gap between