On August 12, 1996, I came screaming into the world. I had all of my fingers and toes and my parents could not have been more proud of their “perfect” baby girl. I was (and still am) blessed with two very loving parents, and just over two years after my parents had me, I was given the gift of big sisterhood.

As I went through my toddler years, I hit all my developmental milestones. Around the age of 3 and a half, my parents started noticing that I was always turning my right ear to the person speaking. Something wasn’t right. I was not reacting to sounds the way the typical hearing child should. My parents took me to my pediatrician who referred us to an audiologist. On September 28, 2000, at age 4, I was diagnosed with bilateral moderate-severe sensorineural hearing loss and immediately fitted with hearing aids. My dad and brother also have congenital hearing loss and wear hearing aids.

When I was first diagnosed, my parents’ worlds were shattered. My dad continued to be in denial, and all my mom could do was hold me and cry. I think they felt I would somehow be limited in my abilities. As a way to recover and accept the diagnosis, we started taking family sign language classes, which we all enjoyed.

From the start, I was mainstreamed in a private school. I had a very typical childhood; my mom drove me to soccer, dance, gymnastics… you name a sport and I have probably at least tried it. My days were filled with homework, playing outside, and evening swimming lessons. I was a well-behaved student who had earned the respect of teachers, faculty, and staff. I maintained straight As and regularly made the honor roll. At school, I had a hearing support teacher come in for a half hour twice a week to troubleshoot my equipment, review math skills, and occasionally play fun games.

In 5th grade, my family moved two hours away for their jobs. At my new school, I didn’t know anyone and I was very shy. If someone asked me about “those things on my ears” I would stare at the floor silently.

Everything was different. I had a locker now, a bunch of teachers who didn’t fully understand my needs, and a new hearing support teacher. I lived in a new city and making friends seemed like an impossible task. I had to deal with my first real bully who would call me names and physically abuse me. When I defended myself from getting hit by a hockey stick, I got detention.

At the same time, my hearing became progressively worse until I was profoundly deaf in my left ear. I was implanted with bilateral cochlear implants during the summer of 2010, the second one just days before starting my freshman year of high school. With intense therapy, I successfully learned to hear and I was constantly amazed at my new hearing world. My academic success improved dramatically and my confidence soared.

In order to fulfill my high school’s foreign language requirement, they offered to let me take ASL. I politely declined and stated that I would be taking French. My sophomore year, I was given the French II Award for the highest academic average in my class. This goes to show that if you work hard, anything can happen! By senior year of high school I had accrued 800 community service hours, lettered in varsity basketball, and was inducted into the National Honor Society.

Today, I can confidently tell you that hearing loss will never be an excuse for me or any of my family members. I graduated from the University of Pittsburgh in December 2018 with a major in communication rhetoric with a concentration in the health sciences and a minor in the administration of justice. I decided to slow my education down a semester so I could do research under one of the top scholars in the field of the rhetoric of medicine. I plan to attend graduate school for a dual master’s degree in disaster relief/emergency management and homeland security. 

In undergrad, I was president of my school’s chapter of the Delta Alpha Pi International Honor Society, an honor society for students with disabilities. This allowed me to help others learn how to advocate for themselves and educate the academic community on how they can best assist a student with any disability. The chapter is very young, but I accomplished the goal I set as a freshman to leave the university more accessible for people with hearing loss than before. For instance, after a yearlong effort, captions are now included on videos that appear on digital bulletin boards and TVs around campus.

Looking back on the journey, I am thankful that my speech was completely unaffected by my severe inability to hear during the prelingual period. I am grateful to my parents, and I would not be where I am today without the help of each and every single person on my journey. 

Pittsburgh native Meghan Bayer attended University of Pittsburgh. For more, see megsmiracles.com. This article originally ran in the Summer 2018 issue of Hearing Health magazine.