I Am Deaf

I was born a normal healthy kid. I was active, outgoing, smart and lots
of trouble for my mother. Until the age of 5 and a half I got meningitis
and became deaf as the end result. It took me a while to understand the
new me, I went to different schools as my mother was trying to find the
best school for me. Having no past experience with deaf children or even
adults, made it very hard for mum to know if she was doing the right
thing by me.

None of my family used sign language. A speech therapist
told my mother not to sign otherwise I would loose my excellent speech.
But like I said in the end my mother had to make a decision based on what
she had learnt at that stage. I still speak well and still none of my
family use sign language. I went to a normal hearing school with a deaf
support unit. Class was so damn easy, I started causing alot of trouble
and fighting with other students.

Deep down I was frustrated even though
I didn’t realise it at the time. Having a bad temper was a normal part of
me and I didn’t control my outbursts until the age of 16. Up til I was 16
I was living in the country where I had only three other deaf friends,
and I felt most comfortable communicating with them using sign language.
When I use sign language I feel there was no need for concentrating on
what the other was saying, which was more relaxing. I can lip read, and
have one on one conversations but still was very hard to keep up with all
the talking at a xmas party etc which made it frustrating.

So when I was
16 my family and I moved to the city. There I enrolled in another school
with a support unit and again only two other deaf students there. But on
the way home there was more like 20 other deaf kids on the train. Straight
away from then on that was where I felt I belonged. I started going out
every night even though my mother wouldn’t allow me, I would keep on
meeting more and more deaf fellas until eventually I moved out of home. I
was still attending school until I finished year 12. I was passing all my
exams and partying at the same time. The only reason I stayed in school is
I was too busy socialising to think about what I wanted to do for work.
When school was over the partying got worst. I was living on the government
disability support pension (which I never needed in the first place). My
friends started working and earning some decent money, so I did the same. I
became a spraypainter and still am! While I was an apprentice I still
didn’t give it my all as I was still busy catching up socialising with
people. It wasn’t until I got my girlfriend pregnant whom is my wife now.
We had a beautiful baby girl who put a tear in my eye!

From that day
onwards my whole way of thinking of life had changed in a flash. I was
thinking serious money and a house to put my new family into. It was hard
as in a way it was too late as well I needed to work harder in my job to
earn more money to go from having a empty house with no furniture etc to
a full house just like everyone else has. My son came along 18 months
after my daughter and not long after that my wife and I found out my
daughter is deaf herself too. For me I knew she would have a better
life then what my wife and I had as we had our own personal experience.
All this was happening in a flash and was guiding me to think of
different opportunities in life. The main idea I had was to start my own
business as a smash repairer. When I looked into it I realised the huge
outlay involved. Of course I would have to work so hard and so many hours
I wouldn’t have the chance to see much of my family. Then came along the
internet. I was previously too busy socialising in the past to take any
notice of the changing technology around me.

Now my goal is to have a
successful internet business up and running. All this so my family can
have a better life. It all makes so much sense I just have to educate
myself all over again. Only nowadays I look back and think about who I
became and why I became all because of a misunderstanding of who I am.
I am deaf and I am proud to be deaf, because if I wasn’t deaf I would be
someone else. I can do anything I want just like everyone else. I just
cant pick up the phone and have a smooth conversation verbally or go
next door and have a chat without the repeating of conversations and
writing things down. But there I have always found a way around
everything and will continue to do so. I still haven’t reached my goals
but I will eventually get there one day and pass them on to my dear
children who if weren’t here then neither would I be here.