Hello everyone! Welcome to my intro video. Today, we're just gonna start right into
it. If you're in my channel, I am so glad you're here today I am just excited to
share with you about who I am and what I love in life because yes I am hard of
hearing but I have such a fun personality. Am I totally biased? Yeah, I am totally biased
because I have confidence I think I am awesome and I'm excited to share some
little things about myself today about who I am, how my hearing loss came to be, what
it is and more about that. I'm glad you're here, please do me a favor and
like this video and subscribe down below you'll be the first to hear about all my
other great videos that come out. Also, please leave comment about yourself I would
love to have a little intro about all of you. I do my best respond to comments as
soon as possible and it would be fun to hear about you, where you're from, if you
have a hearing loss, are you D/deaf? I'd love to know. If you are D/deaf or
hard-of-hearing go ahead and turn on the captions if you haven't already. I work
very hard to make sure those are up-to-date because I personally use them
all the time and I know how much they help! Okay, I
hope you stick around to the end of this video because I am going to have a
little special guest now, set your expectations low but it's a special
guest and you will know him when you see him. If you don't know him, I would
be shocked. Okay, so a little bit about me: I was born and diagnosed with my hearing
loss at birth. This was really interesting... I was born in the early
nineties and I was diagnosed at birth it was rare-er, relatively speaking,
for a baby to be diagnosed with their hearing loss at birth because the only
way that that would happen is if someone else in the family had a hearing loss and my
hearing loss is bilateral, moderate to severe, congenital, sensorineural loss.
Which means that it is genetic, so I got it from my parents. The crazy thing though, is
my parents do not have hearing loss so, how did they know to test me? Well I
have an older sister and she was diagnosed just before I was born with
her severe to profound loss so when they
found out my sister had it they said of course this little baby has it so you
need to test your next baby because there's a chance that your next baby has a
hearing loss as well. So, as soon as I was born, they tested me, and unfortunately, I
failed my hearing test. They tested me six weeks later to assure the integrity of
the test. Sometimes, there are some factors that can make the tests incorrect, but
again, it affirmed that I had a hearing loss and it's moderate to severe and
it's a genetic loss that unfortunately, we don't have a cure for at this time.
The great news is we do have things that can help. Early 90's... we're talking like better
devices than what there were before, so I didn't have to wear a hearing aid box. I
know people have had to do that , it can be super humiliating and horrible but we had
hearing aids so we got custom molds made for my tiny little baby ears and I wore
hearing aids from the moment that they affirmed that I had a hearing loss. The
neat thing about being fit with hearing aids so early is that I was able to
develop as almost any other hearing child. I still had a lot of intense
speech-language therapy that taught me how to talk and my mom used cued speech
my parents just decided that ASL was not the route if they wanted to take for my
sister and *me because they wanted us to be quote "mainstreamed". It means that they
wanted us to be able to communicate lingually and orally with people around us.
So instead of communicating by means of American Sign Language or sign, they
decided to teach us and raise us to speak and a lot of people say like "Whoa!
I can't even tell you're hard-of-hearing." Yes, that is a miracle for me, personally.
My parents decided to make the decision that they wanted to fit my sister and *me
with hearing aids as soon as possible and teach us how to speak. That is an
option, it's not a popular option but people should know that it is an option.
It's a lot of work you have to go to speech therapy you have to do your
homework as a parent you've got to be on it like crazy.
Your children will take their hearing aids in and out of their ears like
30-plus times a day, you're always worried about losing them, but as a child
in retrospect nearly 25 years later, I am so grateful that my
parents did what they did because I can communicate with majority
of people so there is kind of my hearing background since I've been diagnosed
I've been involved in a lot of different hearing loss organizations and charities
and institutions that have amazing missions.
Some of those include Hands and Voices they are a national chapter the National Cued
Speech Association, absolutely amazing we love them. AG Bell does scholarships. I got a
a scholarship from them. Hamilton Relay, they are a phone company, I got a
scholarship through them *in high school *for college. There are so many state services that I
was able to take advantage of because of my disability, so fast forward a couple of
years from my diagnosis and in the early 2000's, my sister and I and our
parents, we were asked to really lobby for newborn hearing screening this is
due to the fact that she was diagnosed late at the age of two, and I was
diagnosed at birth. We essentially became this perfect
science experiment to have two children raised in the same home with similar
variables to show the differences and benefits in being diagnosed and treated
earlier like I was, rather than later like she was. She struggled a lot when it
came to understanding language and being able to be oral, and social, and things like
that but the amazing thing is my parents did not give up. They worked so
diligently with her and me and we were able to grow up and I have since
graduated with a degree in advertising and my sister is now a doctor in
audiology. She sounds just like me. We're both very oral but people don't
understand how severe our hearing losses are; like I said, mine is moderate to
severe and hers is severe to profound and it's incredible that we are able to
communicate like we do. We make it look easy though. I have never had a lot of
trouble being confident with my hearing loss. I know other people do but I think
it's just because this is all I've ever known, I've had to compensate, I've dealt
with hearing fatigue, I understand that some areas are easier to hear in than others.
I know that I'm kind of forgetful because of the way my brain processes
sound and it's hard for me to remember things. I
lose things a lot because I can't hear them drop behind me. I get hearing loss. I
live with it every day of my life so considering my unique circumstances, my
ability to speak, I have really taken this to heart and I feel really grateful
for it. I am absolutely grateful that I'm able
to share my voice and share the voice of the D/deaf and hard-of-hearing and to have
that voice for "you know we should have captions on videos" or with coronavirus
"masks are horrible for people who are D/deaf and hard of hearing" and having that
voice to be able to advocate for myself and ourselves as a community of D/deaf and
hard-of-hearing people. My lobbying efforts in favor for the
D/deaf and hard of hearing have included lobbying for the 2003 Newborn Hearing
Screening Bill. My sister, my mom, and I we all got to testify on Capitol Hill in
favor of that bill which we were really happy ended out passing. So every baby
born in the United States has subsequently been tested for hearing
loss at birth so that they can be diagnosed early and given the best
chance to receive the treatment they need to develop as a hearing child. Other
pieces of legislation that we've helped pass include legislation that involves
private insurances covering hearing aids. I believe this is extremely
important because to me hearing aids are just as important as heart
pacemakers, prosthetics, and other durable medical equipment. Hearing aids to a
child's brain are absolutely essential. Without proper hearing devices the brain
cannot be stimulated in those oral lingual areas and develop. I completely
believe in the slogan that "If you don't use it, you lose it."
I am an advocate for hearing device education that does not mean that I
think that everyone who is D/deaf or hard of hearing should have hearing devices.
No, I just believe that everyone who is D/deaf or hard of hearing should be aware
of the fact that hearing devices are available that they can help and
everyone deserves a chance to have them because these are senses, these are
basic social and communication tools. Okay, so there's kind of a hearing side of me
as you can see I've gone through elementary school, middle school, high
school, and college and more and it has been incredibly amazing to be able to
speak and communicate with all my peers orally and lingually.
There was an incredible speaker that came to my college and she was giving us
kind of all a pep talk and the one thing she said was, "If students cannot
communicate, they will not be successful." that hit me like a ton of
bricks because I knew she was speaking the truth. As a deaf and hard-of-hearing
child, communication was not intended to be my strong point, but now I'm working
to make that a strong point of mine which is why I'm creating this channel.
This channel is here so that I can share my stories and show other D/deaf and
hard-of-hearing people what is possible and support their supporters.
There are so many questions from so many sides of how I handle this how do I
deal with this. I struggle with this is this normal? Yes like yes, I'm here to
validate so if you have any questions or concerns or things that you're like "Hey
I noticed this, is this normal? Let me know in the comments below. I really
want to create a community and an environment in which D/deaf and
hard-of-hearing people understand that though a hearing loss is isolating you do
not need to feel isolated. There are so many technological advances and
opportunities to be social and communicate so I hope that this channel
will encourage a community of hard of hearing and D/deaf people to link arms and
make the world a more accessible place for us. Okay, so a little bit more about me.
That I thought would be really fun to share is just a couple things I like. I'm
going to go through really fast but here we go number one: I love to paint. I paint
shoes. These are my shoes. I like to paint my shoes with things that I like. There
was one day that I was going to throw some white shoes out and I thought "No! I can't
throw these out! I want to do something - I want to paint on them so I did. I have an
obsession with pigs hence the pig on the front. I'll get to some more of some of these
things later. Maybe you'll see some things that you'll notice later so I
love to paint shoes. I love succulents but mostly plastic ones.
I do not have a green thumb and can't keep them alive to save my life but if they're plastic,
*they stay alive. I love Goldfish!
Yeah, I don't know why I just love these, these are like some of my favorite snacks. I
totally love to run. I scheduled my first marathon and due Coronavirus, it has been
cancelled I'm like oh so sad! But I love these shoes. These are the Saucony
Freedom 3's and they are heaven on my feet. Now, I will say not every running
shoe fits all so if you're looking for running shoes,
you gotta go find your own. Another thing that I feel like I should mention, I am an
Apple fan, total Apple fan. I just like I can't explain it.
Ever since I switched over from PC and Android, Apple is my home so I will say
that if I ever do any hearing aid app reviews, they're gonna be iPhone related,
iPhone apps iPhone everything because I am in Apple fan. Now if you are an
Android fan I would love to hear in the comments below.
I know that this is very divisive but I don't want it to be divisive. I just had
to bring that up. I will say my love for Apple is deeply embedded in the fact
that the Adobe Creative Suite loves Apple as well so (I won't lie I love Apple) I will also say I think
it's important to note that yes, I am married. As a hard of hearing and
D/deaf person, yes, I found someone who loves me despite my hearing loss and he
does such a great job want to see a picture? Want to see a picture of him? Okay...
Oh we look really young in this picture I kind of look the same let me see if I
can... I still have that smile, I get it when I'm really happy but yes this is
Joel, this is my husband. We met at a water park and life has been great
ever since. And here is the moment you've all been waiting for, our special guest!
oh my goodness isn't he so cute? I only brought him because I love to crochet and this was one of the
first things that I crocheted. His ears are a little floppy but it does not subtract
from the fact that he is really cute so yes thank you, thank you baby Yoda
for being here. Unfortunately, baby Yoda is not for sale.
There we go, if you have any questions for me about what I like or anything
about me, please let me know. I look forward to keep doing this channel and I hope
you enjoy everything I have to share I'm so excited to get to know you all better
and I look forward to sharing more about myself with my videos. If you haven't
already, please like this video and subscribe and leave a message in the
comments below about something that maybe you thought of during this video
I would love to hear from you and get to know you all a little better. Have a
great day!