Experience was the driving force for me. I didn't like not hearing enough or like other people. True, I was 'disabled' but I wanted to be 'able' to do things on my own as best as I could. (with some help perhaps. Hearing through a device just wasn't enough. I had some residue hearing but it was the understanding what people were saying - was what I couldn't get enough of. THAT is what aggravated me all of the time. People talking too fast, loud sounds, background noises, mustaches that covered up lips, chewing gum, and people looking away from me so I couldn't read their lips, all contributed to me being unable to be a part of any conversation or activity. Because I didn't participate - others thought me aloof or if I answered wrong - I was 'mental' or off my rocker. I never thought much about it other than I thought they were wrong and I was right!
Remembering back to the time when I first discovered that I was hard of hearing, I had to work with the new technology then - analog hearing aids and lip reading. Then it was onto digital hearing aids and HAT (assistive listening devices) like my FM system. Ugh. Then I moved on to my iPhone and the Resound hearing aids that I discovered had the t-coil in it and became a promoter of the Induction Hearing loop. It was in 2006, when I participate in a state conference when I was introduced to what it could do for hearing loss people. I could hear on the cell phone. I could hear in a 'looped' room or auditorium or even in a place of worship. I cried for the first time when I could hear EVERYTHING for the first time in my life when in the 'loop.' It changed my life from that day on.
I was a leader in the HLAA/Chapter/State Board world and took it on as a mantel - that if I could tell anyone and everyone about the loop, I would, and I did. I worked on it at the local level as well as the state level. I even put on a state conference which helped to spread the work both by mouth as well as by social media. It was promoted at the National HLAA level then and continues to this day. I presented my Looping conference at the National HLAA convention the following year. Since I walk and talk as a hard of hearing person, I take every opportunity to empower others to learn about how it is to live as a hard of hearing person. Everyone has some type of speed bump in their life. I have deck of them - hearing loss is only one card that I carry. While I may be disability, that hasn't stopped me from doing whatever I wanted to do in this life. I want more looping so I can hear and others can hear too!
There is too much out there to just sit and sulk....just look at the past history and see what other people who have had difficulties and in their lives - see what discoveries have been done or what mountains have been climbed. Anything can be achieved. Not time for dwelling on the past...that is gone. Today matters because tomorrow is coming. Get going.... !!!!

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