Where Are You From?

Where are you from?

It’s a very common question.

I’ll explain and I usually get “Oh…that makes sense” reply. Does it really? Because you just made a judgmental call when you asked me where I’m from. I’m not from England. Or Germany. Or Australia. I was born deaf, in America. You can give me the stares all day long.

In reality, the looks and questions you ask us can make us insensitive when we can do nothing about the way or how we use our voice or even answer your questions that you have no idea what you’re talking about.

Here’s another. “Why don’t you sign?”

It’s a choice. I actually do know American Sign Language. But why don’t you sign? Oh wait you don’t know how to. Hahaha. So here I am speaking English with an “accent”. A language I worked so hard on for 9 years. Wait no. All my life. Exclamation point.

I’m going to be real blunt here for a minute. Who needs a class on Latin language in High School when they should offer American Sign Language? Don’t get me wrong Latin is great if you want to be an expert on dead languages. But do it in college. Okay, please don’t kill me. Here me out. Who speaks Latin these days? Okay, it is a beautiful language and it’s like poetry. But ASL is a beautiful language as well. ASL is perfect. Not to mention how EASY it is to learn. It provides community within the community of hearing loss. No barriers, no awkward stares, no awkward communications, no writing down on note pads, no yelling at us, no super-slow-speaking-just-so-we-can-understand-you-sh!t and ecetera ecetera!

Just be a decent human.