Hello readers. First of all my native language is ASL, America Sign Language, and second language is English so you can and will notice my grammar mistakes. I am DeafGamerDucky. Deaf is who I am. I am Deaf with capital D because I am proud to be Deaf. I love silence. I can’t even imagine how people, who can hear, deal with hearing all various of noise daily in lifetime. It is pretty bothersome. How do I know this? I will gladly explain after give a explanation why I choose DeafGamerDucky a username. Gamer is who I am. I love gaming as much as like you love one thing you doing the most. Ducky is because I like ducks!
How did I come here? How did I even know about this site? Thanks to DTP which known as Deaf Thought Police Facebook page, someone posted this site so thought this looked interesting so why not I sign up and see what is up. I actually looked for introduction thread but to my surprise this site actually doesn’t have one. So I hope it won’t hurt to post a introduction here in General Questions!
I had Cochlear Implant when I was 3 years old. My mom was first one to figured out that I am deaf when I was maybe like 1 year old. Honestly I thought as usually, doctors would tell you that your child have failed hearing test but maybe I didn’t I guess. She tried to call out my name and I didn’t respond. She wondered if it is possibly that I can’t hear her so she decided to stomp on wood floor. Wood floor is excellent to have in your home if you have deaf child so you can easily get their attention by stomping. She took me to family doctor and doctor told her that I had cold and I was ignoring her. Funny assumption, right? How can even Doctor assume that kind of thing? My mom insisted that I am deaf but of course doctor was not convinced. Eventually we had different doctor after we moved to VA. My mom had “talk” with her side of family about me and how to deal with me being deaf. I am very happy and grateful that they exposed me to Deaf culture and ASL even doctor ordered her not to. (If that was you, doctor who tell families to not expose their deaf child to ASL and Deaf culture, reading here, fuck you.) Eventually I got a tool to give me a ability to hear which is Cochlear Implant since I have no hairs in my both ears. I went through speech therapy. I always hated it. I even hated noises. I was so stubborn and I took off my CI almost all time at public school I attended long time ago. It actually gave me nasty headache. When I was in 6th grade, I went to Va school for the Deaf and Blind. I loved it there even their Education was not that great. I had never seen so many deaf people there. My first public school only had maybe 5 deaf students include me. That year was my first “year” without wearing stupid Cochlear implant, it was joyful for me. Sadly, it lasted three months and we had to move to SC because AT&T offered better pay job for my dad and we needed more money so no choice but to go for it. I actually missed my friends there for long time and I even begged my family to let me go to SC school for the Deaf and the Blind but they denied and insisted me to go to public middle school. I could not make choice anyway. I have been “mainstreamed” all way through high school till my third year, I turned 18 and decided to move to Florida with my grandparents to attend Florida school for the Deaf and the Blind. I loved FSDB, it was amazing experience part of my life however it was only a year and I had to move back to SC to spend my time with my dad’s final moment. He had cancer and brain tumor which has regrew. He passed away on Thanksgiving 2012. It took pretty hard like truck smash you. Even though we rarely have communicate with each other, we used to play games all time. Glad I had chance to play Gears of War 3 campaign with him.
I am Deaf, male, 21 years old who loves straight vodka, gamer and an actor. I played for 3 years at high school and gotten on local news twice in different year. I got superior rating at Festival Thespian and even best of all, I was first deaf to enter and receive that rating. Basically they never had Deaf competitive before me. Thought I would like to brag a bit. Right now I hardly use my ancient cochlear implant tool and it is collecting dust. It has duct tape on it and cracks. I actually don’t miss any sounds.
So now this site, I noticed banner “Fighting Ignorance Since 1973”. I thought it is quite interesting and think I might should post a story that you might learn something. First of all we all are ignorance because you and I always have much to learn even you are 100 years old, you’d still have something new to learn. Do you ever remember the feeling moment when you thought that there is only one thing about whatever it is and realize that others had different thought and you realize you have missed lot? I love that feeling because I enjoy learning new things that I always thought it would be one thing all the time.
Back in high school. I had a dude who was part of gang, I actually never have in contact with him so I don’t know what happen to him during high school year but all I know that he was part gang or I assumed. That day, he came sit at seat next to me and asked my interpreter if she will interpret what he say (DUH! IT is their job to interpret all shit going on in a room! No reason to ask them like that. Derp.) She replied that she always interpret everything going on in classroom because it is their job. So he asked me if I knew what sign is it when he flashed “BLOOD” gang sign. At first I didn’t know the fuck it was and I asked “The fuck is this? I have never seen that sign before and it does not look like ASL at all.” All he said it was Blood gang sign. I said “Now all gang people copy our language and use as gang and flash at dudes? That is great! Now polices will get wrong idea when we use ASL!” It actually happened and I am shocked how much ignorance police was when I encountered him with my best friend at mall long time ago. You can easily tell the difference between gang signs and ASL because it is so oblivious. He almost put hand cuff on us but lucky my best friend is hearing and he explained to him. We pretty much can’t live without hearing today so I was lucky.
I believe that is enough for now. I am sorry that I wrote too long page! To be honest, I actually never write that long on forums before. So any questions?
