My Adult Journey Into the World of Sound
By Megan Clancy
I never knew that ice makes sound when it breaks. My entire life, I had assumed that it was a silent event, one of many innocuous happenings taking place everyday beneath our very feet with little or no attention paid. Then I heard the sound, like glass breaking, and I had never been happier to be wrong. It was the most beautiful sound I had ever heard - partly because I never thought I would hear it. I was born deaf and, for the longest time, thought that that was the way it would always be. Once again, to be proven wrong was a grand thing indeed.
I remember my mother’s haunting words spoken to me as a child - "I wish you could hear the birds. I wish you could sing with me." The words tore through my heart. I wanted so badly to do the things my mother wished. I wanted so much to be able to exist like a normal child - playing outside without the fear that I would not hear the sound of an oncoming car. I did my best to be such a kid - I participated in gymnastics, swimming and soccer. Although I kept myself busy and, on some level, had a normal childhood, the truth is that it was anything but. In reality, I had difficulty interacting with people, making friends and feeling a part of my peer community. No matter how much I wanted to be a normal child, I simply wasn’t one.
Then I heard about a device known as a cochlear implant. It allows the profoundly deaf to hear by generating electrical impulses to the auditory nerve so the brain can perceive almost the entire range of possible sounds. Immediately, I decided to have an operation to implant the device into my ear. I visited the MA Eye and Ear Infirmary in Boston - excited about this new, life changing possibility. What I was told, however, was "no." The doctors there said I would receive no benefit from the implant because it only works for those who lose their hearing later in life or for very young children. In addition, I was handed a laundry list of possible risks ranging from meningitis to facial nerve paralysis to loss of taste, dizziness and infection. Still, I was undeterred. The next day, I visited another center and received very different advice. They agreed to let me have the implant surgery.
When I got out of the hospital, the first sound I heard was that of birds singing. Then I heard my twin sister’s voice for the first time in my entire life. Waiting for the bus became a new and exciting event - the sounds of the city providing perpetual entertainment. I discovered the beauty of Beethoven, the magic of movies and, most amazingly, the sound of ice cracking beneath my feet. Castle Island in South Boston was the place where all winter I would walk on the thin, frozen puddles and listen for the soft gurgling sound when the water rushes up and over the broken pieces of ice. These small details - missed by most and dismissed by many - are what make my days so incredible and my life so amazing. I would have it no other way.
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