Friday, March 5, 2010

Its the little things in life that mean the most

Lately, I have had some of the most amazing experiences. I realize more and more the little experinces that remain with me forever. Most people don't know that my family is a blended one becuase each of us is so close it seems like we were biologically al ways siblings. I love each and every one of my siblings for everything that they have given to me, the baby! Whether it was threatening to have a shot gun ready for the first guy that stepped on our porch, or helping me get ready for a high school dance, or maybe just listening to me ramble about the guy problems or a bad fashion decision, each of them were there.
However, another interesting fact that many do not know is that one of my brothers happens to be hearing impaired, no he is not completely deaf, but he does have to wear a hearing aid, and his speech can be understood pretty well. As a child, I learned sign language when I found out my mother and stepfather were to be married. Wanting to accept him and be able to communicate with him, I learned ASL( american sign language) like it was going out of style. As he got older though, he became embarrassed of signing and only wanted to communicate through speech. My signing skills quickly diminished.
I never really thought about sign language again until more recently. Just last weekend my brother and a friend of his who also happened to be deaf joined my family and I for dinner. When I found out the friend happened to be completely deaf, I scrambled to remember all that I had learned before. All of the sudden I was astonished when I heard a clear sentence come out of the woman's mouth. I looked over as she explained that she was indeed completely deaf, but she read lips quite well and had learned to speak. This woman blew me away, I could not even finish my dinner, because of the intrigue she brought. Can you imagine not hearing a single word of what your saying and yet saying it as clearly as any normal hearing individual. SIMPLY AMAZING! As dinner continued, I learned of all she had been through to get where she was today, and was just in awe!!!
I truly believe I was in shock for a long time, and in reflecting upon the amazing experience. I realized what a small impact people can make on people's lives and they don't even realize. I only hope that I can make that big of an impact on someone's life. In meeting that sweet woman, I was inspired. She made me realize the little failures in life are nothing compared to how worse it could be. If she could push herself to such rates of success with basically no support at all, then so can I. Anything I experience now brings me back to that evening and I realize that maybe it just isn't all that bad.
Little experiences are life changing.

-Ashton

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