Hi, my name's Melissa.
I have
hearing
loss. If you're waiting for a sad
bullying story, I don't have one. All I have is the story
that is mine. I was born with hearing loss. It got worse as I
grew older and is still getting worse, and it's never going
to get any better. However, we didn't find out about it until
I was four years old. And when I was three, I fell in love
with music, more
specifiaclly, the piano. I wanted to learn how to play ever since
that night I discovered one, and I started to learn when I was
six, and now I play all the time. I also sing, which I love
too.
However, I went to Clarke summer camp, at the Clarke School for
Hard of Hearing and Deaf. I sang at the last night, and one
counciler started crying. When I asked my mom why, she said it
was because so many people with hearing loss, who are deaf, who
have any kind of dissability, won't usually try something
because they'll be afraid or think they won't be able to
do whatever it is they want to do. It
made me think of how people don't take chances in life, how
more people need to have faith in themselves. I'm agnostic,
so I never prayed for strength to do the "impossible",
and I feel like some people think they need to rely on someone
else to do something they're scared to. You don't.
All you need is determination, a love and passion to keep
you going.
There's this girl, who's blind. She
auditioned to be a munchkin in "The Wizard of Oz" which
is the play I'm in at the moment. She didn't let her lack
of sight get in the way of something she wanted to do, something
that many people would've siad she wouldn't be able to
do. Well guess what, she did.
I do have a point. My point is, whatever's hard for you, you do it. You try. Even if just living through another day, trying to eat a little, not cutting, going out for a sports team, anything. If it's worth anything, you try. And try again.