I work at the textbook annex on my campus, and I am a cashier, the first type of job I've ever had that involves interacting with customers constantly. I first started this job back in the fall, and was so nervous about my people skills. I remember that I would always get flustered when I actually need to listen to them when I was asking for their information such as phone number and name, etc. If I could not understand them, I started panicking sometimes and just resorting to having them write down their numbers and all that information. Most of the time, I hated being at work because I did not like how nervous I got and how flustered I was with customers. Sure I was new at this, but I still felt that way at the end of working there for two weeks. I kind of wish that I had been working there with both hearing aids, just to know how difficult it would be for me to do all that I do with customers.
But my point is, I realized today, that my cochlear implant has helped me tremendously when it comes to interacting with strangers and asking for their phone numbers and trying to help them when they need it. My confidence level has improved in how my skills are for dealing with customers, like the past two days of work has been good, where I am not having much difficulties with customers, I have not resorted to using pen and paper just to find out something simple like a phone number.
Also, it has been interesting being back at work because at my job, there's always new people every day, and it's fun to get to know a lot of people, even though i may not see them again. I've been talking to a few of them about my hearing loss, and I've been hearing about how other people know certain deaf people and how other deaf people function in the world. One coworker was telling me about how she was in a class, and there was a deaf person there who had an interpreter and she thought it was fascinating how fast the person could sign, and told me of one time where they went to a place, and it had a lot of machinery in the background, and nobody in the class could understand what the professor was saying, and yet the deaf person knew what the professor was saying because the interpreter was standing right next to the professor and could translate everything for him to understand while the rest of the class just stood there clueless of what the heck the professor was saying.
But anyways, I just felt like saying something random and telling everyone about my realization. The other thing I want to mention is that I found another book that is a memoir by a deaf person that seems like it would be interesting to read. I have tried reading "the unheard" by Josh Swiller which I never finished... maybe someday. But the other memoir that I found is called "What's that pig outdoors?" by Henry Kisor, who is a deaf journalist, and it looks like an interesting read, so I may pick it up soon and start reading at it.
That's all for now,
next appointment at the hospital isn't until March, so who knows when the next time I'll post on here,
until then-
-Annie
