My cochlear implants give me power
For four years, I didn’t hear the world around me
For four years, I lived in comfortable silence
For four years, I communicated using only the two good hands God gave me
For four years, I was deaf
Then a machine was put inside my head
I was told I would hear but I didn’t understand what that meant
I could hear sound but couldn’t make sense of the noises coming inside my head
I was overwhelmed
For years, I fought against wearing my cochlear implants
I didn’t like all of the sounds and the headaches they would cause
Learning to discern the words my own mother was speaking was frustrating
I spent years in speech therapy (sometimes torturously) just to say my own name
I learned to love my cochlear implants about the time that I realized
They weren’t holding me back but expanding my view on life
Listening to birds chirping, the “wrrrrr” that the fridge makes at night
and the sound of my fiance’s laugh make the struggle I went through worth it
Without them, my world would remain a silent grave
I wouldn’t be able to communicate to my family and friends
Or do something as simple as order a hamburger from my favorite place
My cochlear implants give me power
Power to be in the world and not an observer of it