Description
I remember the first time I couldn't hear. I was seven and sitting in a hospital room with my panicked mother. The doctors lips were moving but no sound as far as I could tell. I turned to my mother and she was in tears as her lips moved. No words, no sound, nothing. The doctor was trying to calm me down but how do you calm down a seven year old who is deaf for the first time in his life? You can't. So of course it took a lot sugary candy and writing on white boards to communicate as best as a first grader can. It was hard on my mum, especially because my dad walked out on us four years before that. I remember as a kid, coming home and locking myself in the basement and screaming at the top of my lungs. Trying to hear something, trying to wake myself from this nightmare and then one day, I realized that this fever dream was my reality and I couldn't change it. My mum tried her hardest for me, making an effort to learn sign language with me, sending me to a deaf school and making sure I was happy. I picked up Sign language easily because I was so young but I struggled trying to communicate with others. I couldn't communicate with the rest of my family, my mum had to communicate for me until I could lip read and try to teach my family how I communicate. Nine years later and things are still tough but not as hard as they were.
The Fever Dream That Turned Into Reality
