Why I Love Music, Even When I Can’t Hear It.

Like most people, I remember watching my favorite TV shows growing up. I remember those vividly colorful characters, and the charming songs that they sang. At 3 years old, I sat in front of the TV singing happily along to the songs. I was blissfully unaware that I was singing the wrong or completely made up words.

Soon afterwards, my mother took me to get a hearing test done. Sure enough, I had been born partially deaf in both ears. I remember that day quite well, being sat in a chair with a large pair of headphones on top of my curly head.

“Let us know when you can hear the beeping in your ear, O.K?”

A high pitched beep would play every so often in each ear, at increasingly higher or lower volumes. I had been so excited for the game, once I got it down. All I had to do was raise my hand when I heard the beep, and the nice woman and my mother would smile at me.

After that trip, my mother discussed hearing-aids with the doctors. My mother did not look particularly upset, but I could sense in the air that I had not won the previously played game.

In order to make hearing-aids, one must subject themselves to a process of having a semi-liquid molding substance squirted into their ears. This acts as the part of the hearing-aid that sits partly in the ear canal.

As a child, and even still, this was the most unpleasant part of the whole ordeal. But as a child, and even still, the most exciting part was being able…