If you have not read my whole story of living my silent life part 1-4, please read this from the beginning. So you will not be confused or puzzled where the whole story came from.
After my cochlear implant surgery was successful, I was in my hospital room and found myself in my bed. I saw my mother lying on the bed, sleeping. I realized that my head was wrapped with a bandage. I was a little worried about losing my hair but it was still there. I was very relieved.
Since my cochlear implant, everything was more complicated than I thought. It was a very big change in my life. That happened when I was 8 and a half years old.
A few months later, I wore my cochlear implant, which made me uncomfortable because of the CI processor in my chest that carried the wire to my left ear. It was terrible experience! My mother and I communicated through speech and sign language at home, she forced me to wear CI (cochlear implant). I was not pleased how my mother acted like rude person, because she was too proud of having me being “hearing” person. She pushed me to talk in my own voice. I still needed a lot more practice talking and wasn’t ready to carry on full conversations. My mother was showing off and acted like she was the best mom. I was not very impressed with her egocentric demeanor.
A few years later, my mother and I went to Los Angeles and reviewed everything with my cochlear implant. The information was determined to be updated in that way it helped the House Ear know what was going on and made sure that my cochlear implant worked. I really hated to do that. Every March, we went there many times.. It made me very tired of going there for updating the information with my Cochlear Implant.
When I was 12 half years old, I moved to California School for the Deaf in Fremont, California – I found that many Deaf students used a different sign language – American Sign Language. I had no idea what to sign in different ways. I was naive and felt awkward. I met some nice friends, but they turned unfriendly to me because I had my cochlear implant with me. They questioned why I had my cochlear implant. I felt like that I was not invited to California School for the Deaf – Fremont. I was trying to understand why Deaf students did not support the Cochlear Implant. That was when I did not know how the Deaf community felt about Cochlear Implants.
In *CSDF middle school, some students bullied me physically and emotionally. Three Deaf female students pushed me into the boys’ restroom, making terrible fun of me. In each day of school, three same students bullied me in the girls’ restroom because they were trying to change who I was, they destroyed my cochlear implant processor. When my mother found that my cochlear implant processor was broke, I was afraid to tell her about what happened at school because I did not want her to be mad and I did not want to tell on three students. However, she pushed me to say something and I confessed about what happened at school. She was very angry, placing a call to the school with a complaint.
In the next morning, my principal and homeroom teacher took me to the office and discussed their concerns about three female students bullying. They required the names of three students I gave since the serious consequences of that they felt that they had to take action for what happened. They suspended the three bullies. After that, some male and female students still bullied me by making fun of me and calling me many inappropriate names such as “You are soo fussy!” ” You are B—-H!”, or – “You are Robot Idiot”. I was hurt but ignored them. Meanwhile, I was awarded as an honor roll student in the Middle School for two years and I achieved good grades until I completed my 8th grade, so it was obvious that many students were jealous.
I was still, however, a bit disappointed. I never get a chance to be a honored speaker for my 8th grade graduation because some teachers picked someone else, not me. I guess that a female student, my friend, deserved it, I was happy for her. She was chosen as a honored speaker for our 8th grade graduation, even though she did not get the honor roll student awards. She did not get 3.5 GPA or higher, though …Weird…
Welcome to High School. It was NO JOKE… When I entered into *CSDF High School, it became SUCH A nightmare…
..Stay Tuned for next episode of Living My Silent Life: Part Six..
*CSDF = California School for the Deaf, Fremont
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