What's It Like To Be Deaf?

In my life, I've had a lot of people asking me what it's like to be deaf. But the problem is, I don't know what it's like to be hearing since I never was one myself. Therefore, I imagine the hearing folks would have a difficult time imagining it. One can find it quite easy to imagine being deaf, but when they actually go deaf... it's often vastly different from what they imagined.

I recall reading the results on a survey done among the public. I was quite perplexed at the answers they gave. The survey was to ask people if they'll rather go deaf or blind. Most went with blindness, but don't they realize that blindness is very, very limiting in comparison to being deaf? A part of the blame may rest on the famous deaf-blind woman, Helen Keller. She was the one to say that being deaf cut you from the world. It does not, but it does create barriers for us to face. It's up to us to break them down or not, it cannot be done without a good fight. I can see where she came from on that one, but a hearing person should know better especially when we live in such a modern world.

Blind people continue to this day face a lot of frustrations with the society. They have to rely on their memories a lot when it come to walking in public. Honestly, do you think one would find it easy to walk through a city like Toronto if s/he is unable to see and remember where the hotel is when s/he is around 30 blocks away? Yes, one could remember the directions, but it's much easier to navigate with a pair of eyes. They aren't legally allowed to drive either, a major disadvantage. I have a driver license, and I take pride in that because I know far too many deaf people who procrastinate on a lot of things... except for partying and living in style at taxpayers' expenses.

I do believe that there are too many deaf people who had made bad names out of themselves and are looked down at by the society. It's not something to be proud of. I may just had answered my own question, but feel free to say something if you must. You're entitled to your opinion just as much as I am to mine. I also base a lot of my opinions on life experiences; though the life experiences varies among the communities across the world. But I'll say I'm glad I don't live in Toronto because I've noticed several restaurants giving quite unprofessional services to deaf customers. I went to two restaurants in a day... terrible, terrible attitudes toward the deaf customers. Yet I see them laughing with the hearing customers. I was being given a dirty look by a waitress, though the food was great. I'm pretty sure that it was the deaf customers that the servers didn't think too much of since there was a deaf event close to the restaurants that day. There were some deaf customers there in my presence and they were being given the same attitude by the waitress, but not toward the hearing customers as I mentioned. The only reason I can think of is that the servers are unable to find a trace of the tips on the table.

I believe the majority of deaf folks are well-behaved and leave a darn good tip for the server. Unfortunately, there's too few deaf customers and are easily remembered by the employees. Something that we often have to be careful about because our reputation as deaf people is an easy target. Having a job also shows a sense of being productive and contribute to the society. Living on disability checks and not looking for a job isn't a good lifestyle at all. Earning money give you a very different feeling, a more powerful sense of pride. Even if you hate your job, at least you earned the money.

Sorry for jumping around, but deafness isn't a small topic to cover. I don't hate being deaf, nor am I in love with it. It comes with both advantages and disadvantages to live with. We learn to adapt to it and learn our ways around. I don't spend everyday giving people a sob story about how deafness is such a burden. Actually, it isn't a burden on me most of the times. Although there has been times when it was. Living in a family full of hearing folks and being the only deaf person in it... we will face hard times even when our parents use sign language to communicate with their children. We are constantly left out of family conversations and we often have to tap a parent or sibling to find out what's being said. At the family dinners, it's usually fine if everybody can sign. But at big family parties where all the relatives attend... deaf folks are almost always left out. Which is why I often leave big family parties the earliest because I just find it mind-numbing. Hey, everybody has a bone to pick with their families, and I picked mine. Though I love my family dearly and see them all of the times. They're the most important people to me in my life because they've done so much for me.

The thing about being deaf, it isn't so bad. But yes... we do sometimes face barriers and find them to be frustrating. Though we do end up winning a lot of times, don't we?

I know that some of you will be left with unanswered questions, and may had created even more questions after this. Feel free to discuss and ask me questions if you have any. Just leave a comment.. Please don't hesitate to say something, even if you feel that I may be offended. I'm not easily offended, and will try my best to give you a good response.

Cheers.