I’ve been looking at the blog and noticed that while I’ve covered atheism and some politics, I have yet to address the cyborg portion of my name. I was actually born with a 60 dB hearing loss that degenerated to around 100 dB by college. At that time I got my cochlear implant. I might do a post on that at a later date.
A cochlear implant is a bionic ear, an artificial device which gives me some semblance of hearing in my right ear. Not as good as natural hearing, but it helps. Ah, the miracles of technology…
Anyway, being an oral deaf individual has it’s challenges. You remember the old cliché about the man with each foot in a different world? That’s me. I don’t fit in with the deaf community because I can barely sign and I have the implant which many members of the Deaf community disapprove of. I also do not fit in with the hearing world because I just cannot hear them at times. I’ve misheard common conversation as some very strange things. Weather becomes leather and boom!, my boss is asking the secretary how her BDSM is doing. As you can see, these sometimes require judgment calls.
Office meetings are particularly bad. The voices just tend to blend together into this rather nice soporific background buzz. This would be great if it weren’t for the fact that I tend to be at work when these functions occur. All in all I only pick up about half of what is said, which is very bad when you are the summer intern. The last thing you need to hear when you’re leaving on the last day is your boss saying, “Good fuck!” When he actually said, “Good luck!”
That’s all for now kiddies!
It’s amazing how much of the world is a mystery unless you personally live it. I wouldn’t have understood the feeling of isolation you experience, I just wouldn’t have guessed how difficult it can be. The bit about the boss/secretary exchange made me giggle, though. Visions of Maggie Gyllenhaal immediately spring to mind…