A summary of my History as a Deaf person.

I was born deaf as far as we know, my mom didn't realize that I was deaf until I was almost one year old. As the story goes, she noticed how I would respond to her whenever she stomped her foot, instead of when she would call my name out. My entire family is hearing, with the exception of my grandma who called herself hard of hearing most of her life and communicates orally with the exception when she is around me, or with signing Deaf friends.

My mom decided to raise me using Signing Exact English (SEE2), although the first dictionary she took home after she found out that I was deaf, was called Joy of Signed English. My mom was determined that I would grow up to have good English skills and that I would receive excellent education in school. Thus she always kept a very close eye on the progress I was making at school. She first enrolled me into a preschool for the disabled, I belonged to the deaf class but of course. Then i moved to a new school for kindergarten and grade 1. This school was interesting and very small, it was quite experimental, where the teachers taught in SEE2, even though there was an even number of hearing students alongside the deaf students. Most of the hearing students were children of Deaf adults or interpreters. However, my mom was not satisfied with the education I was receiving there, and moved me to a public school. I had a SEE2 interpreter, and was the only deaf student at the public school.

That was the beginning of my long history of being the only deaf student at various public schools. I honestly don't really remember having much of a hard time at first with the experience of being the only deaf student. But as I got older, the harder it became for me, and by the time I was in high school, it was very tough. I can't say that it was a bad decision of my mom to send me to a public school, because who knows who I would be if I didn't grow up the way I was, and I also did make the choice to go back to my local public school after experiencing a mainstream program for the deaf in grade 8 where i had to stay at a dorm, away from my family on the weekdays. I learned so much from being able to socialize with deaf classmates during that time and learned ASL, although most of what I learned has been forgotten by now. It just was too difficult for me to stay at a dorm and being away from my family. I'm a very "family-orientated" person I suppose. Today, I would say that I wish i stayed at the mainstream program, because i think I would be more outgoing instead of shy and anxious, which i strongly believe was manifested by growing up [especially as a teenager] being surrounded by only hearing people, most that couldn't or wouldn't sign. But the past is the past, no use to dwell on that, better to look forward. I am thankful for everything my mom did, she tried her best to give me access to good education, language skills, and generally just wanted me to be a happy child, i think she did a good job. Sure there's some things she could have done differently, such as raising me using ASL, but she did what she thought was right at that time, and I'm grateful that I had a mother who loved to sign, and always encouraged my family members to sign, even if they were not taking to me, so i could always stay involved in conversations.

For most of my life, I have lived in the hearing world, aka EARth, having very little contact with other Deaf people. I had very little knowledge about Deaf culture, ASL, and most especially about the history of Deaf people. In the past few years i befriended several Deaf friends that I would get to see from time to time, not often enough due to distance, but thanks to the internet I was able to stay in touch. Thanks to one Deaf friend of mine, who posted about the Unity for Gallaudet protest, after reading her posts, i started to investigate. I found myself becoming more and more passionate about the protest, and naturally learning a lot about ASL, and Deaf culture. This blog is, i suppose you could say, about my journey into Deafhood.

For more in depth information, please go to the next few links:

A Deaf Girl's Thoughts on the Term 'Deafhood'
Confessions of a Deaf Girl Who Had an Audistic Attitude