#i think she was born deaf in one ear to hearing parents and got surgery for her CI when she was an infant | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

hannahmcne · 6 years ago

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Can You Hear Me?

Ben is only seven when he is diagnosed with meningitis. He wakes up one morning with a high fever and a headache and can’t keep anything down the entire day. The servants and his parents in Beast’s Castle assume it’s flu until his mom comes in the following morning and discovers that Ben won’t wake up. A doctor is called in, and they get him on a small weekly prescription to see if things will get better by week out. On a Saturday, two months before he turns eight, Ben is rushed to Auradon Central Medicare and formally diagnosed with meningitis.

At the time of his admission, the two outside layers of the meninges that protect his brain have swelled up and fluid is gathering inside his skull, leading to him not being able to stand light and having trouble keeping conscious. The nurses and doctors arrange a set of IV’s that send a steady range of antibiotics straight into his veins, an oxygen mask to regulate his breathing throughout the night, several dozen steroid and anti-inflammation medications he has to take by mouth during the day when the oxygen mask is off, and many other things. Meningitis isn’t a surgery-fixable case, so Ben is left to fight it off by himself.

Looking back, Ben can’t remember the exact specifics, but he does remember waking up one morning, squinting around the room as nurses rushed in with water, food, and medications, and thinking that things sounded rather fuzzy, as if he was underwater or had earplugs in. Then, suddenly, if his mom says something to him, he can only hear half of it. Doctors quickly catch on to the problem and bring in Ben’s first audiologist, who tests his ears and declares that Ben is almost 100% deaf in his left ear and steadily increasing towards deafness in his right. By the time he’s eight, his ears are no longer working.

Ben slowly recovers, but his hearing doesn’t. Those first few nights back home are horrible. People forget, try calling to him, get angry when he doesn’t answer, and then are embarrassed when they remember. His parents get someone to come and teach him sign language, but for the first weeks, he struggles to write what he wants to say to his parents as they wait, fidgeting, for him to express his thoughts. Many times, Ben finds himself sitting in the quiet of his room, tapping silently on the windowsills and walls, hoping by some miracle he’ll hear more than just the memories of what the sound was.

The years pass. He learns to read lips. Exhausting? Yes. Necessary? Equal yes. He slowly starts to make friends again. At first, people are nice to talk slowly while he tries to associate movements to meanings, but soon they start talking just as fast as ever, and Ben’s head spins, trying to make sense of everything everyone is saying. He learns to follow conversations by following people’s eyes when they turn to listen to someone else speak and practices daily in front of a mirror with a transcribing device, making sure he can still be understood even though he can’t hear anymore.

People say he’s a great speaker.

His friends describe him as a great listener.

He guesses he’ll never really know for sure.

He’s Auradon’s future leader, born to listen to the kingdom and fix their problems, and he can’t even hear anything. He wonders if his future wife will have a problem with the idea he’ll never once hear her muttering to herself or singing to anything. He wonders if his future kids will make jokes to their friends about how their dad never listens to them or something.

At the age of sixteen, Ben makes the decision to bring over villain kids from the Isle of the Lost in order to start a re-integration process that will start to heal things between the Isle and Auradon. And yeah, there is lots of fear in doing something like that. What if he picks wrong? What if they start to destroy Auradon? What if they just plain don’t like him? He picks four to start with, figuring it’ll be easier to connect with a smaller group first, and sets about work. Soon enough, the first four names are down. Mal, daughter of Maleficent, Evie, Daughter of the Evil Queen, Carlos, son of Cruella De Vil, and Jay, son of Jafar.

Arrangements are made, parents are notified, and the new students are set to arrive on a Tuesday to the Auradon Prep front circle. Fairy Godmother invites the band(Which is a division Ben appreciates a lot more than the other students, given he can’t hear the horrible beginning practices) down to welcome the new students and Audrey gets herself excused from her class to come down and be with him as he welcomes the new kids.

On the day of, Ben can feel cold sweat dripping down his back as he stands, baking in the mid-afternoon light, waiting for the limo to appear down the road. Audrey’s arm is looped through his, his suit is sticking to his arms, and his hands are shaking. She leans her head on his shoulder serenely and then he sees her start moving her lips out of the corner of his eye. He whips his head around to follow her words as best he can.

“…be nervous,” She is saying. “They’ll love you. Everyone does.”

“I didn’t catch that first part,” He tells her with a sigh. He hates how she likes to talk with her head on his arm. It’s hard to see her. She can’t expect him to know a word she said if he can’t see her, right?

Fairy Godmother puts a hand on his other arm gently and points down the driveway. Ben sees a glimpse of a black hood and his breath catches. He pulls his arm out of Audrey’s and takes a deep breath, rubbing his hands on his suit.

The limo comes to a stop; the door opens. There’s a minor scuffle, but then all four stand in front of him, and then Ben is relaxing because he can see teamwork here. He can see curiosity and wonder and chocolate smeared on Carlos’s cheek. There’s definitely hope. He picked right.

“It’s so, so good to finally meet you all,” He declares, stepping forward with a smile. “I’m Ben.”

All of the VK’s eyes rest on him, and he can see their expressions softening just slightly before their eyes jump to the person next to him and he can see walls going back up again. He turns to see what’s wrong and watches Audrey’s lips form the words: “soon-to-be-king!”

He lets out a nervous laugh, mentally kicking himself in her behalf, and adds: “This is Audrey!”, which is another mistake as Audrey stops the conversation to declare that she’s a princess.

Evie steps forward, and she’s mumbling. He has no idea what she’s saying. She’s barely moving her lips as she speaks, and he’s at a loss. He turns to Audrey, hoping she’ll have caught on(Fat chance, because out of all his friends, Audrey is the one who ignores the fact he can’t hear the most) to the fact he is clueless, and he watches her mouth curl into a sneer as she replies: “The Evil Queen has no royal status here, and neither do you.”

Oh. Oh. Why, dear lord, would she say that?

“Audrey,” He grits out, turning to the side. “Can you just… chill?”

Audrey blinks in surprise. “I am chill,” She protests, wrinkling her brow up.

“No, you’re not,” He shakes his head. “So just stop.” He turns back to the villain kids and moves forward, out holding a hand. “I’m Ben, I’m going to show you around and I’m going to be here to answer any questions you have. You can come to me for anything – anything at all.” He shakes the hand of the first villain kid, who he suspects is Jay from the insignia on his jacket, and then the next in line, who stands slightly forward as if she’s the leader. The wing applique attached to her shoulders make him suspect this is Mal, daughter of Maleficent. Evie is obvious. She has apple jewelry and recently declared herself a princess if he suspects correctly. And that means the last boy is Carlos de Vil.

There’s a short introduction of the area by Fairy Godmother, and the band heads out. Ben turns to Audrey. “I think I’ve got it from here,” He tells her as clearly as he can. “I’ll come to find you later.”

Probably to break up with her. He’s sick of her attitude.

As he leads the Villain Kids into the front of the building, he keeps turned around so he can keep track of any conversations they’re having. They don’t say much, which is good, and the first time Carlos moves to ask something, he raises a hand that immediately draws Ben’s attention and has him mentally sighing in relief.

As they pause in front of the Beast’s statue and the four watch him turn it from a man into Beast, Mal turns with a little smirk pulling at her mouth and asks: “Does he shed much?” And even though he can’t hear her voice, he can tell it’s filled with sarcasm and humor. His response pleases himself too.

“Yeah, Mom won’t let him on the couch,” He replies. And Mal’s expression catches because she clearly didn’t expect an Auradon boy to get her Isle sarcasm. All of the Isle kids exchange little looks as he smiles, and he can already tell that this is the start of something great.

The boys immediately get in with tourney, which is great, because it’s something he gets into as well. His teammates have to tap him on the shoulder and relay any direct instructions that are for him, but overall it doesn’t require lots of communication and is fun for him. Lack of communication is another reason he enjoys swimming. Meanwhile, Evie debuts a few Isle designs, slowly starts letting people buy things off of her, and then suddenly she’s the number one fashionista in the school and people are commissioning her for outfits and accessories. Mal draws a lot, he notices immediately, except she doesn’t sign up for art class until he convinces her to do it with him. Then, eventually, she becomes top of the entire program and the teacher sends one of her Isle-inspired pieces to a country gala where Ben’s parents actually text him a photo of it to get his opinion. Ben, meanwhile, learns how to use a dot to make a 2D picture.

And so he and the VK’s are friends. When they come up to talk to him, they clap him on the shoulder so he knows they’re there and he tells Evie to speak up so he can always understand her, and things are good. Really good.

Until suddenly they’re not.

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“Ben!” Mal raises her voice and her hand to wave across the room as the young King enters the lunchroom(He’s the king now, and neither Mal nor her friends really felt like ruining his big day to steal the wand, so now their plans have become a ‘Distant Maybe’ (Aka, probably not)). She keeps her hand raised for a few seconds and then brings it back down when Ben doesn’t reply. She stares at her fingertips numbly as Evie, Jay, and Carlos duck their heads a little in confusion.

“That’s not the first time he’s done that,” Evie mumbles, pushing her plate away and setting her mirror down on the table.

“Maybe he’s getting annoyed with us?” Carlos suggests in a hollow tone, setting his elbows on the table and his chin on his elbows.

“Let’s not jump to conclusions,” Mal murmurs as she watches Audrey raise an

arm from a different table and call for Ben. He sees her arm out of the corner of his eye and turns to smile and wave before he goes to sit down beside Chad Charming, who Mal doesn’t like, Lonnie, who Mal only likes a little, and Audrey, who Mal could watch burn alive and not care. Audrey looks over at Mal with a little smirk as Ben starts to talk with them, and Mal averts her gaze, acting as if she doesn’t care that he’s not sitting with them again. Acting as if it doesn’t hurt that he’s ignoring them.

Jay pushes his plate back too and stares at the table for a few seconds. They all completely miss Ben turning to search around the room from his table and trying to wave when he sees them.

________________________________________________________________

Mal is standing at her locker when she hears footsteps approaching from the other side, which the door is blocking. She closes her eyes. The footsteps are light, so she knows they are not Ben’s, but it is the fact that someone is trying to impersonate Ben that has her heart aching. Nothing good can come out of this.

She shuts her locker door and meets the eyes of Princess Audrey, the King’s girlfriend. And then she leans against the lockers and keeps her face blank as she waits for the girl to state her case or scoff and leave, as she usually does.

“Aren’t you going to say good morning?” Audrey demands after a while.

Mal raises an eyebrow. “Aren’t you?” She asks.

Audrey scoffs. “It’s never a good morning when you’re around. Ben really is just too trusting.”

Mal slumps internally. She really doesn’t want to hear this right now, but she can’t turn and walk off without showing Audrey she’s getting to her, so she stands there without a single flinch.

“I mean, sure, his mom fell in love with the big nasty beast who turned out to be a prince, but with my mom, the evil fairy was just the evil fairy. Your mother, remember?” Audrey sneers. “Doesn’t look like there’s been much change between generations.”

An arm appears out of nowhere, separating Mal and Audrey, and Mal looks up to see the very cross face of the king himself as he pushes Audrey away from Mal. Audrey’s face falls away into shock. “Ben,” She squawks. “How much did you-”

“I saw it all,” Ben snaps, dropping his backpack on the ground and taking his girlfriend by the shoulders. “And that’s it. I’m sick of your attitude towards me, towards everyone else, towards the people I like… everyone. We’re not your doormats, and I hate how you think you’re entitled to brathood because you’re my girlfriend. This is it. We’re done, Audrey. I’m breaking up with you.”

Audrey crumples, tries to grab at his sleeves, but he’s turning away, already gone. He turns back to Mal with a concerned expression, reaching to put an arm around her shoulders, and Mal can’t bring herself to meet his eyes.

“Are you okay?” He whispers, tugging her chin up a little so he can see her face. “Listen… it’s not true what Audrey said.”

Mal pushes him away. Something about this isn’t correct. He can’t ignore them and then swing around full circle to try and fool them that he cares about him. “Just go back to ignoring us,” She snaps. “We already deal with everyone else hating us – we can deal with you too.”

Though it’s disappointing… he seemed so genuine and funny.

Ben’s arm drops from around her and he repeats: “Ignoring you,’ as if it’s astounding to him. Mal rolls her eyes. She doesn’t understand why he’s pretending now, of all times. She turns her back to him and strides off with her shoulders back and her chin held aloft. She can hear Audrey starting to cry behind her and thinks, at the very least, Audrey is finally getting what’s coming to her.

________________________________________________________________

There’s a light knock at the door that evening. Carlos has mastered his game and is searching on the internet for a new one to begin while Jay cleans his tourney stuff off in a corner and Evie sketches her heart out in a design book, trying to find her next big creation. Mal is reminiscing Ben’s arm around her shoulders and squeezing her eyes shut as she recalls what it was like to hear Ben break up with his girlfriend. And since she’s the relatively least busy, she’s the one who gets up to answer the door when the second knock comes, more persistent and meaning it’s not Ben behind the door.

She slides the lock and uses her toes to swing the door open. Over the threshold is Doug, who is probably going to end up being Evie’s boyfriend, she thinks. Evie stands up with a smile when she sees him and waves. "Doug!” She greets. “I didn’t know you were coming over today.”

“Hi, Evie,” Doug smiles and waves a little. “I, erm, am actually here on Ben’s behalf and – wait! No, don’t close the door!” He jams his foot into the frame as Mal moves to swing the door closed at the mention of the King’s name. Evie sits down with a scowl as Doug opens the door with a sigh, steps in, and closes it. Mal goes to sit back in her place on Jay’s bed without a word or a flicker of emotion. Everyone else looks away with similar expressions of disdain as Doug takes a deep breath against the door.

“Ben said that the four of you think he’s ignoring you. I’ve, ah, come to clear things up with you in case you don’t feel like talking to him.” He swallows, and then Jay speaks up from across the room.

“Man, we get it, he doesn’t like hanging around the villain kids. We get it.” He sighs, sounding dejected. “It’s just a little disappointing because he’s the one who brought us over.”

“Ben is deaf,” Doug corrects with a shake of the head. “He hasn’t been able to hear anything since he was eight years old. So, if you’re trying to get his attention from across a room or walking by him in the hallways, you need to make sure he’s able to see you so that he can read your lips.”

The room is silent. Then, slowly, Jay straightens up, looking mystified. Carlos looks like the heavens have reopened. A revelatory light comes into Evie’s eyes, and Mal gets up and turns to stare at Doug. “He… can’t hear us?” She repeats.

“100% deaf,” Doug confirms. “That’s why he has to have people speak slower or ask them to repeat things. He doesn’t even know what he sounds like. He practices speaking with a transcriber in the morning so he can make sure people can understand them. So, he hasn’t been ignoring you, he just had no clue you were trying to talk to him.”

“But he went to Audrey’s table when she called him,” Mal frowns, recalling Audrey’s smirk as the king joined them. “And he didn’t look at us at all.”

“Were you sitting somewhere he could see you?” Doug asks. The four VK’s fall silent again. Mal leans back into the wall. Ben is deaf. He can’t hear. That makes so much more sense.

“Why didn’t anyone tell us?” Carlos asks, running his hands through Dude’s fur at his side.

Doug shrugs. “I don’t know. We all thought you knew. I was actually pretty surprised when Ben asked if I could come to explain things on his behalf. I didn’t know that you didn’t know.”

The silence stretches out with each of them taking in the revelation. Then Jay, across the room, heaves a sigh and goes: “Oh,” and the other three chuckle in relieving humor.

________________________________________________________________

Mal makes the first attempt at conversation with Ben the next day, as she spots him down the hall, walking with Chad. She pauses at her locker, screws up her courage, and then sticks out a hand and waves it. Ben doesn’t notice for a second, so she keeps her hand out, and then suddenly his head snaps in her direction. He blinks for a second, taking in the fact she’s trying to get his attention, and then his entire face brightens. He claps Chad on the shoulder, bids him goodbye, and hurries over to her with his entire face beaming, completely happy that she’s speaking to him again.

“Hi!” He greets her.

“Hi!” She smiles a little in spite of herself. He goes to open up his arms for a hug before he appears to remember that the VK’s aren’t as open to affection as the Auradonians. But Mal accidentally opens her hands up and so they stand there awkwardly before he puts a hand around her and gives her a hug from the side. She kind of… lets her arms fall into place around him and he laughs, a bubbling sound that she feels rise up in his chest and it makes her feel a lot happier than she’s been lately.

“I saw you trying to get my attention,” Ben smiles. “Do you need anything? I’ve missed talking to you.”

“I’ve missed talking to you,” Mal smiles, shutting her locker even though she still needs to grab her textbook and head to class. He keeps an arm around her, which makes it hard to draw away the arm she has around his back, but she does let her left arm drop. In her hand is her sketchpad with her pencil stuck into the spiral ring. They start wandering down the hall aimlessly together. “Doug explained… things to us. We’re sorry that we thought you were ignoring us.”

Ben ducks down a little to continue watching her mouth as she looks to the ground, and the thought occurs to her: if Ben is to read lips, he has to see said lips move. She brings her head back up, allowing Ben to straighten his neck as well. “Sorry,” she apologizes.

“No, I’m sorry,” Ben shakes his head. “I honestly thought you guys knew. I was a little concerned when you all stopped coming around to hang out and Carlos and Jay would break off during tourney practices, but I just kind of hoped you were starting to feel a little more at home here and were trying to branch out.”

Mal shakes her head. “We had no idea,” She sighs. “I do think, in hindsight, that Audrey realized we didn’t know. There were times we’d try and get your attention and you wouldn’t notice, and she’d try right after us and look over to make sure we got the memo.”

Ben frowned. “I’m sorry about Audrey,” He shook his head. “She got bad leading up to coronation, but after it was over, she was just insufferable. I’ve been meaning to break up with her for a while. When I came up to talk to you and saw her saying that stuff… it really was just the last straw.”

Mal hums and suddenly, she’s not sure how, they’re out on the grounds and their arms are still around each other’s backs, and they’re just chatting like two old friends. He gestures down at her sketchbook. “Have you done anything new recently?” He asks.

“Loads,” Mal affirms, holding it up. “I’m almost out of room. Having you gone gave me lots of angst time.”

“Oh, we can’t have that,” Ben laughs, rolling his eyes. He holds his hand out for the book. “May I?” He asks.

She hands it to him and then watches his face grow brighter as he opens it and starts flipping through from where he last saw her working. He stops to flip back at some of his old favorites – a rose is, notably, one he is always enchanted by – and she can see in his eyes how impressed he is with her recent work.

“You really like art a lot, huh?” She asks. He doesn’t answer, and Mal mentally kicks herself before she waves a little hand in his face, waits for him to rip his eyes away, and then repeats the question.

“I do,” Ben affirms, glancing back at the picture as he speaks. This one is of Jay on the tourney field, diving into a catch in what feels like slow motion. “Art needs no words.” He glances back at Mal to make sure she isn’t saying anything else before they stop beside a tree and take a seat at the base of the trunk. She wraps her arms around her legs and watches him flip through.

No words, meaning he doesn’t have to follow the conversation. Mal watches him continue looking through her work. A little bell goes off in the back of her mind. You have class, something reminds her. Your textbook is in your locker.

She can be late – it won’t be anything anyone wouldn’t expect from a villain kids, after all.

Ben puts his finger down on a self-portrait she’s been working on, with different parts of her personality and the Isle itself detailed into her outfit and features. In her eyes is a curling dragon, under her arm is a spellbook, her friends have images on her arms, and the Isle skyline is worked into the base of her jacket and into the hemline of her jeans. “This is amazing,” He breathes. “You are so incredibly talented.” Ben looks up to see if she’ll respond, but she doesn’t, she only shrugs, and he goes back to admiring the portrait.

“I want to commission you to do anything we ever need ever in the palace,” Ben breathes, leaning back into the tree. Mal laughs a little and then waves her hand a little. His gaze snaps back to her as she starts to speak.

“Is it okay for me to ask what being deaf is like?” She asks. “I mean, you seem to fit in really well – we seriously had no idea you were deaf – but what do you think about it?”

Ben frowns. She can see a little hurt in his eyes, but something tells her that it is not her fault. He folds the pages of her sketchbook back over the binder, leaving her portrait visible so he can keep stealing glances at it, and takes a deep breath. “It’s hard,” He admits. “By this point though, I’ve been without my hearing for half of my life, so I’m used to it.”

“What don’t you like about it?” She asks.

“Trying to listen to other people is hard,” Ben confesses. “Especially when there’s more than one. I get massive headaches trying to figure out what everyone is saying and jumping from person to person. And then there’s the fact I can’t be called. My parents and I use sign language at home, but almost none of my friends know any, so I can’t use it here.”

“Is sign language easier?” Mal asks.

Ben nods. “Yeah. Reading lips can get exhausting. Especially when you have people who have their faces hidden or when they mumble or even if they have lots of, like, braces stuff in their mouth. It’s hard. I couldn’t understand what Evie was saying the first few times she talked because she was trying to do that thing where you talk without moving your face.”

Mal bursts into laughter. That annoys her when Evie does it – she can’t imagine how Ben refrained himself from slapping her. Ben smiles and leans back into the tree. “There are also the things I miss that make me sad, you know? Like, I haven’t heard the national anthem in years, and whenever it’s played, I just have to stand there awkwardly, waiting for everyone else to indicate it’s done. I can’t hear waterfalls or birdsong or everyone screaming at the end of a tourney match. When I grow up, I’m never going to hear my wife sing or my kids cry or anything.”

Mal’s smile fades and she touches her ears lightly as if to make sure they still work. “That’s awful,” She mumbles, trying to imagine a world of complete silence.

Ben leans forward, looking confused. “Did you say something? I couldn’t catch that.” He squints at her mouth.

“Oh, sorry,” Mal takes her hand away. “I said 'that’s awful’. I wish there was something I could try. A spell or something…” She trails off, thinking of her mother’s spellbook in her locker. The chances of her mom having something in there seem minuscule, but she can always check.

“I’ve learned to live with it,” Ben shrugged. “Is there anything else you wanted to ask me, or can I finish looking at your drawings now?”

Mal gestures for him to go on, and he looks down and continues examining her portrait, completely blown away by the small details she’s included into herself. Mal smirks a little as she watches him trace the pencil markings with his eyes, and then slowly reaches over the uses her nail to flip a few pages forward. She pulls the pages up and Ben gasps when he sees the picture that she’s shown him. It’s of himself, though it doesn’t have much detail, yet. She’s doing one for all her friends. This one has Auradon Castle running along the bottom of the page as Ben stands in a tan shirt with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows, looking over his shoulder a little. One eye if shaded and detailed with a little library swirling around his pupil, but the other is just circular markings that will determine the placement of his other features.

“Woah, I look good!” He exclaims, tracing a finger down his sleeves. “You make me look really good!”

Another laugh spills out of her throat. She can’t help it. He just makes her laugh. All the time, whenever she’s with him, she’s laughing.

Ben puts his arm around her and she leans into his side as he flips back and forth between her portrait and his, occasionally glancing through the other three. “When these are done, I want them,” He declares, and doesn’t look down to see if she’ll protest.

Evie finally messages her a 'where are you?’ and Mal knows the gig is up. Ben begrudgingly hands her back her book. “I’m going to have to get you a new one,” He declares, leading her back to her locker for her book.

“I’ll just get one from the school,” Mal shakes her head. “You don’t have to do that.”

“No, I’m going to get you a really good one with lots of high-quality paper,” Ben decides, moving his hands to accentuate his words. “And then we’ll have to get you a lock so no one comes to steal your artwork.”

She’s laughing, again, as she opens her locker and takes out her textbook and spellbook and a couple of other books. Then she shuts it again and they stand there in the sunlight for a little while. Ben’s eyes flicker from her face, checking to make sure she’s not talking, down to the sketchbook, and she knows he’s thinking about those drawings.

“I better get to class,” She finally says, heart falling a little. “I’m already late.”

“Are you free on Friday night?” Ben asks, eyes drifting up to meet hers.

Mal tilts her head to the side. “I think so,” She affirms. “Are you hoping to come around and see everyone?”

“Do you want to go on a date?” Ben asks, crossing his arms and leaning against the lockers.

Mal’s mouth goes a little dry before her smile grows even wider. “Yeah,” She agrees, nodding her head in case her words somehow don’t travel over to him. It’s entirely possible, as her face feels a little numb. “Yeah, I’d love that.”

“I’ll make some plans and come talk to you about them later,” Ben decides. He puts an arm around her one more time, and then they bid each other goodbye, and he goes one way, and she goes the other.

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Mal, Jay, and Carlos slam a torrent of books down in front of Evie and Doug as they sit in a hidden corner of the library with completed Chemistry Homework and advanced theory books open in front of them. Evie looks over, startled, as the table rattles a little and a passing librarian pops her head out to frown at them. “What are you doing?” She demands in a whisper.

“Look,” Mal gasps, holding up the thinnest manual of all the various books they’ve dropped onto Evie and Doug’s workspace. It’s a manual depicting how to perform basic conversations in sign language. “Ben knows sign language, and he said almost none of his friends know it. If we learn it, then not only will it be easier for us to talk to him, but also no one will know what we’re saying. It’ll be like Isle code, but with Ben.”

“Oh!” Evie’s eyes light up and she begins to skim the stack of various sign language dictionaries. “That’s completely brilliant! So, is it a surprise?”

“Yes,” Carlos nods, picking up one about various foods in sign language and opening it to a random page. “We’ve got to make sure we don’t botch it first.”

“Guys,” Doug tries to break in carefully, but Jay cuts in.

“This stuff is like, super easy, too. To say 'hi’ you just wave. Simple!” He exclaims, searching through the manuals for one he likes.

“Guys!” Doug calls for their attention. They turn to look at him and then watch as he rattles off a complicated pattern with his hands. Mal’s mouth drops open. “I’m Ben’s only other friend who knows sign language. My dad taught me it. And, by the way, you aren’t going to be able to remember everything in all of those manuals just by reading through them and practicing once or twice. What if you start with conversations, and we can all practice together, and then generally add in things like sports and families and food?”

He has a point, Mal concedes. Jay and Carlos and Evie are all nodding along to his words, so Mal sighs and picks out one large dictionary and the one manual about basic conversation. “So, start here?” She asks.

Doug puts his hands in the air, palms facing outwards, and shakes them back and forth. “Start here,” He instructs. “This is the sign you use to get someone’s attention.”

Helpful, Mal immediately pegs it. This is very, very helpful. They all look a little strange, shaking their hands at each other in a corner of the library, but she feels a little accomplished already because this is something she can use besides holding her hand out forever and hoping he’ll notice her from a distance.

The journey has begun.

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Evie walks into the girl’s room a week later to find Carlos sitting on her bed with Dude and Mal finishing her homework on hers. She shuts the door behind her and flips the light on and off twice to get their attention before holding her hands up, fingers splayed and facing the ground, and flipping them upwards. 'What’s up?’

Carlos stretches his shoulders a little before he responds by flexing his index finger as if he’s trying to grab something in front of him, rubbing his knuckles together like there’s something in between them, and then touching his middle finger and thumb together before snapping. 'I need to wash the dog’.

Mal flexes her fingers on her left hand before tapping her wrist against the back of her right hand. 'Homework’. She says. Then, shaking her finger in the air and pointing at Evie, 'Where were you?“

Evie spells out Doug’s name and holds up a new manual out of her bag. Mal smiles proudly. That qualifies as a conversation. They’ve just completed a basic conversation. She balls her fists up and gives them a little shake of triumph before turning her eyes back to her homework. She feels so, so close.

________________________________________________________________

Eventually, it gets to the point that they’re all in remedial goodness together, and they’re signing across the desks instead of talking verbally when the Fairy Godmother gives them a 'discuss this’ assignment. The headmistress watches from the front of the room as Evie, Mal, Jay, and Carlos all move their hands and faces with dramatic, yet silent expressions. Mal recently learned the signs for 'be quiet’ (Crossing one’s hands a little underneath their chin and then moving them apart) and she’s overusing it a little bit as Carlos insists that the answer is 'C’, not 'A’.

"Did you guys know that Ben also knows sign language?” The Fairy Godmother asks when they all settle down. Carlos is fuming in his seat.

“We know,” Mal nods, looking down at the portrait she’s almost finished of him. Hers is done, so is Jay’s, Carlos’s she has to fix Dude, and then Evie’s is falling behind just a little as she works on putting Ben’s parents into his sleeve and them – his friends – onto the other.

“He’s kind of the reason we’re all picking it up,” Jay explains, kicking his feet up on the table. “Now we can talk to him without his other friends being annoying.”

“Oh,” Fairy Godmother blinks in surprise. “I don’t think anyone’s ever learned for him besides his parents. That’s very kind of you.”

She turns back to the blackboard and Mal feels another surge of pride. She can’t wait to see the look on Audrey’s face when the Core Four get to talk to Ben without her knowing a word.

________________________________________________________________

One would assume that Family Day would be an extremely unpopular event for a bunch of teenagers, but everyone seems to get pretty down on the idea that their parents are allowed to visit. Ben tries not to talk about it very much at first because he’s afraid that they’re upset their parents won’t be there, but to be honest the four have kind of given up on their lives back on the Isle and are liking their Auradon lives much, much better.

Ben’s parents, the former King and Queen of Auradon, arrive in a polished carriage that Mal could spot from a mile away. Ben meets them at the gates and she watches as they greet each other with shaking hands and 'how are you’s that she can understand. After exchanging pleasantries with his parents, Ben turns and gestures her forward. She steps up, and Ben introduces her as his girlfriend (Bringing a thumb down from beside his cheek and then linking his index fingers together twice with either palm facing down.)

Belle and Adam’s eyes widen with shock and a little worry. After all, girlfriends either turn into exes or wives and having the daughter of Maleficent as either could get a little messy. But Ben is confident, explaining briefly about her, and she smiles as she pretends she can’t understand 70% of what he is signing.

Finally, Ben turns back to her with his bright smile and re-translates the entire conversation for her. She shakes hands with his parents and then his dad points Ben’s attention to where the Fairy Godmother is calling for him behind his back, trying to get someone to tap on his shoulder. Ben leaves, walking for the Fairy Godmother, and Mal makes eye contact with the royals before she lets loose a few signs of her own.

She touches her fingertips to her brow in a light sort of salute, holds a fist up with her thumb on the outside, then crosses her thumb over her first two fingers, and finally makes an 'L’ shape with her hand. 'I know Auradon Sign Language.’ Then, crossing her arms across her belly, making a motion as if she were flipping a word out to someone from her chin, and turning to point at Ben’s retreating back a little. 'Don’t tell Ben.’

Belle’s mouth drops open a little bit more and Adam straightens up in curiosity. “It’s a secret,” She whispers, leaning forward a little. “My friends and I are all learning to surprise him.” She points back to her boyfriend with a meaningful eyebrow quirk, crosses her arms again, and then touches the top of her head in that same salute. 'He doesn’t know.’

Queen Belle’s eyes fill with tears as Adam nods in the heaviest sort of approval he can muster. Belle gestures to them both and makes the motion to seal her lips closed. 'We won’t tell.’

________________________________________________________________

Mal can’t deny that she is very nervous as she, Jay, Carlos and Evie all sit at their lunch table together, but Doug has pronounced them mostly fluent and they haven’t spoken in each other’s company in a week straight now, so she figures it’s time to put their skills to use. She points to each of the four of them with a questioning look on her face. 'Who will start?“

Jay, Evie, and Carlos all point at her before Carlos signs, pointing towards her and then closing a hand by his forehead before linking his index fingers together in the same way you do for 'girlfriend’ and 'friend’. 'He’s your boyfriend.’

Mal acknowledges this with a deep breath and a nod and then looks up to see the person in question enter the room. She watches as he’s caught up in a group of other friends – Chad Charming, Lonnie, Jane, Doug, and even Audrey. She watches him get caught up in the conversation, looking a little dizzy as he follows everyone’s eyes to figure out who is speaking. Her hands are shaking a little, and that’s not even a sign.

"Go on,” Jay whispers. It’s actually a little weird to hear his voice after just listening to him sign the last few weeks.

Mal hesitates a second longer, and then puts her hands into the air and shakes them a little. Jay, Evie, and Carlos all turn and mimic her motion, and immediately, Ben’s eyes have left his friends’ and he is staring across the room at the table trying to get his attention. After all, that is the sign for getting someone’s attention, and he is the only deaf person in the area.

Evie beckons him forward with a hand. 'Come here.’

Jay gestures to the group, makes claws with his hands and brings them closer to his chest, taps his fingers on his lips, and then points to Ben. 'We want to talk to you.’

Carlos takes up the 'Come here’ sign as Mal puts the tips of her fingers together and curls them outwards at her sternum, a little like she’s presenting a gift, and points at her boyfriend. 'How are you?’ She asks.

Ben stares at them like he doesn’t understand what he’s seeing for several seconds. Chad starts trying to talk to him, but of course Ben isn’t looking; he’s staring at their group and slowly bringing his hands up to cover his mouth as they all repeat their signs, trying to urge him to come over so they can really try out their skills. His eyes fill with tears and he stumbles a little. The rest of the group finally follows his gaze over to the VK’s, who start asking if he’s okay by flicking their index fingers out in concern. Mal gets a great sense of pride when Audrey’s eyes bug out and her entire left side of her face twitches. She’s probably seen Ben’s parents using sign language and knows exactly what she’s seeing, even if she doesn’t know what any of the hand symbols mean.

Ben brings his hands down and then starts his own signs. He points at them, brings a hand up to his face and spreads his palm out like something that blew up in front of him, and then repeats the signs for ASL. 'You learned sign language?’ He asks.

The group all signs 'yes’ as one and it’s at that moment when Ben absolutely breaks down. He has to sit down on the steps of the lunchroom as tears fill his eyes and fall down his face. People go absolutely silent around him as they watch the King of all Auradon wiping his eyes and trying not to make any sound as he cries because he has no idea what he sounds like when he’s sobbing this hard. Mal’s hands feel cold, and she’s not sure what to do, but Doug gestures them all forward and they slowly leave their seats to go crowd around him.

“Are we going to get in trouble for this?” Carlos hisses under his breath as they approach the area where Doug is awkwardly patting Ben’s back as the rest of his friends stare, dumbfounded, at what they just witnessed.

“I think he’s just blown away that we did it,” Mal whispers back. She sits down on the ground beside Ben, chewing on her lip a little, and makes the sign for 'okay?’. Ben watches her through his fingers and then sniffles and takes his hands away from his face to make an arc from his mouth outwards with one hand. 'Thank you’.

He repeats that sign with all of them, several times, and the lunchroom just kind of stays quiet despite the fact most of them have no idea what’s going on. He signs it until Mal finally puts her hand on his. Jay shakes his hands from side to side on her behalf. 'It’s nothing.’

“Did you all… learn sign language?” Audrey asks, dumfounded above them. “You know he can just read lips, right?”

Mal rolls her eyes at an angle so that she knows Audrey can see. Because it’s ridiculous that Audrey is the one pointing this out after she took advantage of Ben’s hearing to tease and mock the villain kids. She presents her palms, face-up, points to Ben, then pretends she’s tapping a flat surface with both hands, taps her fingers against her mouth, gestures to each of her friends, and finally holds one hand steady as she brushes the other past it in a small circle several times. 'Now you can talk to us easier.’

Ben watches her hands move and then buries his face in his knees, giving up on holding his sobs in and breaking down on the pavement.

None of them are quite sure what to do. Audrey looks absolutely offended that this is having such a big impact on Ben while Lonnie, Jane, and Chad look enchanted and a little impressed. Doug looks on proudly as the four villain kids exchange glances, trying to figure out how to comfort Ben. Gradually, Evie pulls some makeup wipes out of her purse for him to wipe his eyes and blow his nose with, Jay awkwardly claps Ben’s shoulder while Carlos continues signing for 'Okay?’. Mal wraps a single arm around her boyfriend’s back and pats his side carefully until he starts to calm down.

Ben tries not to shower them in affection because he knows they’re not used to that kind of stuff but he’s such an affectionate guy that it’s hard. He presses a couple of kisses onto Mal’s hairline and gives Evie, Jay, and Carlos more hugs than they’ve ever had before in their lives as students gradually rip their eyes away and go back to their lunch.

'You’. He points at each of them. 'Didn’t’. He brings a fist down from under his chin with a thumb up. 'Need’. He flexes his finger like he’s trying to scoot something in front of him forward a little. 'To learn’. He repeats the motion of something blowing up in his face with his palm.

Mal reaches into her pocket and unfolds the portrait of him, looking over his shoulder with Auradon around him and tourney bats sticking out of his chest pocket and she and her friends opposite from his parents, and this she presents to him by popping her hands out from her eyes into 'L’ shapes. 'Surprise!“

Ben uses the wipes Evie offered him to wipe the last of the tears away and then turns to Jay, on his far right. He points to himself, makes a heart shape over his heart, and then points to the star tourney player. Jay’s face falls away to amazement as Ben turns to Evie, who is next to Jay. He points to himself, makes the heart, and points to Evie, who sits down with a tiny thud and looks like she might tear up herself. Then to Carlos, whose hands start shaking at the motion. It’s something they’ve never been told before, really, all their lives.

Mal is last. She keeps a little sweet smile on her face as Ben repeats the motion one last time. She kind of wondered when would be the first time they would use this phrase for each other, and she thinks she likes this scenario much better than any of the cheesy things she’s been passing back and forth in her head. It’s a little inefficient to sign out the whole phrase – there’s an easier hand motion for this one – but she repeats it back to him with a smile. Pointing to herself, making a heart over her heart, and then pressing the tip of her finger into his chest, right over where he’s been making all his own hearts.

I love you.

(Bonus Scene)

She flips the light on and off three times when she walks into the study area to get his attention, and also because it makes everyone else jump and complain when their concentration is broken. She ignores the complaining as she walks across the room to him and puts her spellbook down on the table and signs 'How are you?’

As she finishes bringing her hand back down, he brings a flat hand down from his mouth at an outward angle. 'Good.’

She gestures to herself, presses her thumb and pointer finger together in a circle and flicks it upwards, points at Ben, then shakes a pointed finger beside her head, towards the ceiling. 'I found you something.’

Ben spreads his palms, face-up, and brings them towards and away from himself with a confused look on his face. 'What?’

Mal sits down in the chair beside him and begins flipping through her spellbook. It’s a little easier than signing because she’s not as fast as Ben and her hands aren’t quite as attuned to making the symbols yet (Also, she doesn’t know the word for 'spell’ yet). She quickly finds the page she thumbed down about twenty minutes ago and plants her index nail into the page before she scoots the book over across the table to show Ben. He wrinkles his nose in distaste, and yeah, she understands why. But then she points to the side note, which reads ’*Temporary for five minutes*’ and watches him relax a little. He clearly doesn’t get what she’s thinking at this moment, but his expression does lose the concerned edge.

She makes grabbing motions towards her chest, then uses two fists facing foward with the thumbs out to make a motion of knocking against something, and then gestures to the spell. 'Want to try it?’

He shrugs, clearly not sure what to think about it, and so she holds her right hand up. He takes it in a firm clasp like they’re about to have an arm-wrestling match, and then Mal guides him through the series of claps and snaps that completes the second part of the spell. "Cambia Corporum Meum Corpora Sua Nominavi.” She declares, and then there’s a dizzy rush where all the lights in the room seem really intense and she loses the feeling in her fingertips, but then all is normal and she’s still blinking over at Ben, not daring to hold her breath as he leans forward.

Ben’s brain is busy. She stays silent as she listens to him examine himself, make sure nothing bad happened to either of them, and glances suspiciously over at her to see if it worked. She can hear his thoughts just like if he was speaking, but his mouth isn’t moving at all. 'Did it work?“ He thinks, furrowing his brow.

'I don’t know,” She replies, making sure she’s not moving her lips along to the thought so there’s no mistaking it. “Did it?”

Ben’s. Brain. Shuts. Off.

She gets it, on some level. This is the first time he’s 'heard’ anything outside of his own thoughts, and it’s a very, very real and intense moment for him(for both of them, really). But it’s still odd to watch everything behind his eyes die and his mouth fall open as he stares at her, wondering if he really heard anything after all.

'You’re cute,“ She tells him, trying to prod some feeling back into his numb existence. 'I like it the most when you smile. When you smile and you’re in the sunlight, it’s like you’re the literal embodiment of sunshine. I don’t know why you’re going for someone like me, who likes shadows and hiding away from people, but I’m always going to be grateful for you.’

Ben takes his hand away from hers carefully and feels his ears, making sure they’re still off and useless and deaf. Mal decides to try something else. She tries to remember what his parents, Belle and Adam sound like, and as she replays little snippets of things they’ve said in their tones and voices to Ben, she watches his eyes fill with, again, more tears.

She doesn’t have many good things that Audrey has said, so she carefully skirts around Ben’s old girlfriend while replaying Chad talking to Lonnie about a school project, Doug whistling 'Heigh-Ho’, Carlos shouting in joy as he completes a level, the rush of the crowd after Jay won the last tourney match, Evie singing in the shower, and she even takes care to replay several things that he’s said to her so that now he knows what he sounds like. He doesn’t think a single thing to her as he sits back, taking it all in and trying to memorize everything she presents as she does.

She tries extra hard to remember what the national anthem sounded like when it was played at the tourney game last week but can only remember a few bars since she’d been busy talking to Evie and Jane. Next time, she promises herself, she’ll pay extra close attention so she can share it with him.

The five minutes ends. Mal knows when it does. She can see Ben listening harder and harder as he gradually goes deaf again and is left to his own thoughts. She lets her own mind go slack and stops trying to feed him sounds and voices and then they both sit in silence while he processes everything, wiping his eyes occasionally to keep tears from falling. It’s just a really long, comfortable silence where neither of them moves and he’s just kind of staring off into the distance

Finally, his hand twitches on the table. Mal reaches over and puts her hand on top of his. He swallows, and it’s like the spell of silence is broken. She brings her other hand down from her mouth, and then popped her hands out from her eyes into "L” shapes. 'Good surprise?“

He gestured to himself and then, pressing his index and middle fingers together, rolled his wrist up by his forehead. 'I can think-hear you.’

She struggles with all of the signs for her next sentence; not all of the words she knows the signs for, and so she ends up mouthing a little as she moves her hands. She tips her hands up and down like scales, points to her spellbook, shakes a pointed finger beside her head, slams a fist into a palm facing up, and then taps the side of her ear. 'Maybe there’s something to help – like a hearing aid.’

Ben takes her hands to keep her from signing anything else and leans forward to kiss her cheek. "This is already fantastic,” he whispers slowly, focusing on the feel of the words in his mouth now that he knows how he sounds saying them. “Thank you for showing me.”

Mal smiles a little and then makes a bold motion, acting like she’s grabbing something from her chest and presenting it to him. He laughs, and she relaxes into this perfect portion of her life.

#ben #mal #ben florian #mal bertha #evie grimhilde #jay son of jafar #carlos de vil #disney #disney descendants #descendants #descendants 2 #descendants 3 #fanfic

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klsywccds · 6 years ago

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hello all! val back with another, jfc valerie revamp to Kelsey. a lot of her story is still the same && all of her connections are still in place! this is just a little more fleshed out to give her some more depth because i was having a hard time relating to her, rip. WARNING: this shit is long. val got carried away... again. what else is new? so here is kelsey’s new and improved bio !! sliding this in the ‘call’ tag as well bc my sunshine bb desperately needs more plots. did i mention that i love y’all? without further ado, read on!

[ alycia debnam-carey, twenty-five, cisfemale, she/her ] ━ hey, I just saw [ kelsey woods ] walking down the streets of crownsville. they’ve lived in town for [ 18 years ], and you can catch them around town working as a [ high school art teacher ]. I hear they’re known to be [ bubbly & creative ] and [ timid & sensitive ]. if asked, they would say their aesthetic would be [ service dogs, deaf culture, over-alls covered in paint, succulent plants, sunflowers, pride flags, cup of tea ]

Kelsey Noelle Woods (nee Williams) was born on February 24th, 1994 in Gold Coast, Australia. She has never had much information about either one of her biological parents aside from the fact that her mother was a teenager. Kelsey was abandoned on the steps of a fire department a mere few days after her birth. It was a gut wrenching decision for her mother. As much as she adored the little girl, she knew that she wasn’t equipped to provide for all of the child’s needs. Kelsey never really harbored any animosity towards her mother for this but it did cause her to grow up with a deep-rooted insecurity and fear of not being enough.

After her surrender, Kelsey grew up in the foster care system in Australia. Kelsey hated every minute of it. Although some foster parents genuinely did have their hearts in the right place, most of the homes were overcrowded and the parents stretched too thin while also being weary of getting overly attached to the foster children. At worst, the homes were abusive. Kelsey always felt on edge and had an anxiety disorder from a young age. She had a hard time making friends with the other kids due to her never staying in one place for long. The little girl would go to bed and dream of finding a family of her own.

At the age of 7, Kelsey’s dreams came true and she was adopted by the Woods family. The move from Australia to Crownsville was rough for Kelsey. Even after the adoption was finalized, Kelsey was terrified that the smallest mistake would make her dads realize that they had made a huge mistake and send Kelsey back into the foster system. It wasn’t until she bonded with her adopted brother, Connor, that Kelsey started to realize that her new family wasn’t going anywhere. They actually wanted her around --- the first time in Kelsey’s life that someone had wanted her.

She was diagnosed hard of hearing shortly after she moved in with the Woods’. After a couple of surgeries as a child, her hearing was partially restored in her right ear. However, out of her left ear she can’t hear anything. Eventually, Kelsey will lose her hearing all together. She can speak aloud but prefers to use ASL and can hold her own with reading lips. Kelsey never really felt like this held her back in life. It was all that she had ever known. Her dads insisted that, since her other senses became stronger, Kelsey was the superhero of the family. This started a life-long obsession with superheroes. Figuring that it would help their daughter, Kelsey got her first service dog when she was eight. Her first service dog was named Jarvis (after Iron Man which is her favorite movie). The dog was trained not only to alert Kelsey to sounds but also to help with her anxiety.

School was a mixed bag for Kelsey. She was a naturally bright and gifted student, always at the top of her class academically and never daring to misbehave. She never wanted to draw unnecessary attention to herself. However, Kelsey was severely bullied by the other kids. She was bullied for everything from being adopted, to her thick Australian accent, to her disability, and finally for being gay after she came out in high school. She spent most of her time with the teachers. Her teachers always adored Kelsey and, ever since, Kelsey knew that one day she wanted to be a teacher so that she could help kids too.

Kelsey also fell in love with art at a young age. Although Kelsey is modest about her talent, anyone can see that she is a remarkable painter. She paints everything from completely abstract, to scenery, to almost scarily accurate portraits of people. When she got to college, Kelsey decided to combine her two interests and study to become an art teacher. She originally intended on staying in Georgia for college. However, after a lot of thought, Kelsey decided to take a leap of faith and go out of state for college. She accepted a full ride art scholarship at the University of Colorado. Since then, Kelsey never looked back.

Kelsey moved back home to Crownsville after finishing her undergraduate degree. She missed being around her family so she got her teaching certificate in Atlanta. With her latest service dog, Gamora, by her side, Kelsey is in her first year of teaching art at the high school. It’s funny to her to be back walking the same halls not long after she graduated and even funnier to be working alongside her former teachers. As well as teaching art, Kelsey also runs the high school’s Gay-Straight Alliance. She is eager to prove herself and make her classroom a safe space for her students. She suspects her students are more interested in Gamora than anything else --- but hey, whatever works, right?

Kelsey is the ultimate sweetheart and would never dare to speak ill of anyone. Even though she’s had her fair share of heartbreak, Kelsey chooses to look on the bright side. She believes there’s beauty in the world and a good person inside of everyone.

WANTED CONNECTIONS

a page will be coming soon with more detailed descriptions! but off the top of my head: biological mother, biological siblings, foster siblings, college friends, teacher friends, artist friends, ex-girlfriend that she dated before leaving for college, neighbors, former bully in high school turned close friend. and as always, anything that your beautiful mind can think of!

TAKEN CONNECTIONS

adopted brother --- @conncrwoods --- kelsey’s #1 in life. she will forever consider him her best friend and he’s always the first one kelsey calls in a time of crisis. she’d do anything for him.

childhood friends --- @lvcybirch, @elirades, @will-blooms --- people that kelsey grew up with in crownsville and have stayed close over the years.

first love --- @tierneytaylcr --- tierney and kelsey met in college. they were each other’s roommate. right from the start, they hit it off and fell pretty quickly for each other. they dated for four years but broke up after graduation because kelsey wanted to return home while tierney wanted to travel the world and pursue her music career.

roommate --- @ellymunro --- honestly, kelsey believes they were destined to be each other’s roommate. elly is one of the only people who is just as nerdy as kelsey is. she can’t imagine living with anyone else.

current girlfriend --- @silver-sixx --- in true kelsey fashion, kelsey was crushing hard on silver ever since they met on the booze cruise. completely flustered, kelsey accidentally introduced herself as batman. kelsey was sure that she completely ruined her chances until a month later, when silver kissed her in a coffee shop. they’ve been together ever since.

close friend / lowkey bad influence --- @amara-lange --- whereas kelsey has always played it safe and never wanted any trouble, amara always presses kelsey to get out of her comfort zone. kelsey is always nervous but ends up loving it. almost all of her ‘wild’ stories happened with amara.

#crownsvilleintro #crownsvillecall #ableism tw #mental illness tw #abuse tw

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ammar-b-shakir-blog · 6 years ago

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Edison’s Life & Its Inventions

An article about Edison's life and its inventions:

Admiz Melton writes: One day Edison bought all of Faraday's writings and sat down to study the height and slept there. When my eyes opened in the morning, he was sitting and reading. We were both going to a hotel about a mile away for breakfast. What Edison did read was his mind wandering. Somehow he told me, Adams, I have so much work to do, and life is so short that I have to hurry so badly that I have to go to bed. Started running Most of the things we often use in our daily life are ancient and modern inventions of science. Behind all these inventions is the hands of great scientists and inventors who worked hard and achieved a high standard. One such name was Miss Elwid Yason. Edison was probably the greatest inventor in history. He attended school for only six months, but the invention of his bulbs and phonographs changed the lives of millions of people. Edison has patented 1,000 inventions in his life. In reference to Edison's great service to humanity, Henry Ford once suggested that distant life should be called the Edison covenant. Edison praised extraordinary intelligence in these words: a verdict on the idea and a nascent decision on a sweat. He proved this belief by working all the time that he was just at meal time. Edison seemed to find everything strange. He experimented with pharmaceuticals and proposed a program for people's comfort. He was very close to the invention of the Red U. and he used nuclear energy. Predicted about Edison always strives to create things that can work under normal methods without spoiling and easily repair and improve the inventions of other

Early Life:

Edison Milne was born on February 5, 1847 in Ohio. Samuel Edison and Nanny Edison were the seventh child. Edison's grandfather was Judith Holland and mother was from Canada. The family emigrated from Amsterdam to the United States in the 8th century. Seeing the boy's curiosity and passion, his family called him Elva. Elva used to ask them questions constantly. How does the bird escape from the chicken poop? What makes the bird fly? Why does the water extinguish the fire? His school teacher couldn't even answer some of his questions. If no one was able to answer his question, he would try to get the answer from his own experience. One day, Elva learned that bubbles fly because they have gas. So he sent a boy to sidelight. Feed three sauces of safflow Elva was convinced that when the boy's stomach was full of gas he would start flying. But instead, the boy fell sick and lay on the ground, and the world began to feel him spinning.

At the age of seven, Elva moved with her parents to Ho Chi Minh, where her parents started a grain and litter business. Elva entered a public school and hurried the teacher to ask a lot of questions. The teachers used heavy leather keys to kill the children who asked them questions. One day, Elva told the district school inspector Ho Edna's son, Hoyna, is dirty and unable to study. Elva ran home and told her mother. She would go straight to the teacher and tell her in incredible words (Elva is more intelligent than the teacher's entire body in little swallows) and she dropped him off from school. Thus, the regular recognition of Elva Edison lasted only three months. His mother intended to teach him by playing the game, which was unusual at the time. His mother made education a game for him. At first he was surprised at it, but very happy later. He began to learn so fast that his mother could not teach him any more. When Elva was nine years old, her mother introduced her to a book written by Richard Babe Parker, a well-known teacher of the mid-nineteenth century. Elva Edison refused to accept her writings. She repeated each experiment to prove the author wrong. Elva had more than a hundred smells of different chemicals. She had poisoned all the smells to keep her family members away from them. Charles Bachelor, a friend of Elva's, says: "One night I returned, and I was sitting at the dockside, and in front of it was a pile of alchemy and other books, some as high as five feet." He was studying all day and night. In a few weeks, he had looked at all the books and prepared a volume based on his abstracts. He also did many experiments on farms. From the age of nine to twelve, he spent many years in the history of Hume, England, the rise and fall of the Empire, Potter's Discovery of the Senses, and Tuton's Principal of Teacher, Fla. Now it was fall. At the age of twelve, he got a job as a train boy in a grenade trunk train. He used to save newspapers, candy, tea, and peanuts in the train (which runs between Port Huron and Detroit). Was. In his spare time, he experimented with merchandise and chemicals in an empty container. He bought a press and started publishing his own newspaper (the Herald Daily). Due to its unique nature, it began to go hand in hand. It was the first newspaper to be published in a moving train.

Chemical experiments in Elva's train hit him hard. One day, a fire broke out in the foreshore pen, causing a flare in the train's car. At this point, the conductor hit the powerful Elva's ear. Received and threw her out of the box with her chemicals, printing on it and other things. The incident caused Elva to become deaf. However, Elva attributed her deafness to another incident. While she was trying to board a moving vehicle, the conductor pulled her by the ear and brought her to the platform. Edison said a few years later (I He felt something break in his head.) My deafness started from then on and it only increased.

Edison, though not completely deaf, but in the last years he could barely hear the screams. His depression could have ended with a concussion, but he refused to have surgery. Edison did not mind being deaf but thought of an easy way to get one. Edison escaped Barmouth's mouth because of his ear impairment. It happened that Edison bought a large pile of old books in doodler and he took it and left for the house at three o'clock in the night. In fact, a watchman saw him and ordered the thief to be considered. Jason couldn't hear because he was deaf. The guard fired the bullet, but the bullet passed through Edison's ear. Thus the great inventor survived the target. After the train wreck, Elva started to save the newspaper at the stations. One day at the Clemens Railway station, Elva noticed that a freight train was moving towards the station at Mulla Zam's son. Elva rescues the baby in a timely manner. Thanks to the station, Mulazam taught Elva to use a telegraph in return.

.Early Inventions:

1868, In Boston, Edison worked as a telegraphist in Boston. He completed his first invention, which he sought to sell. It was an electronic voting machine that resembled a machine used in legislative assemblies in various states. It recorded the votes of members of the legislature on a large board. Elva Edison took it to Washington and Congress A committee heard it, but the chairman of the committee told him that the machine was not in the Congress's priority: it takes about 5 minutes to attend. Your machine had to make it work. Elva Edison was very angry with this behavior and said that no I will not invent anything that is not needed. And he kept the words of his words. After that time he committed himself to these words in urgent need of the world. Elva Edison emigrated from Boston to New York in 1940. She had nothing and obtained permission to sleep in the futures of an employee of the Goldandecar Company. Elva Edison used her time to understand the stock ticker most of the time. The telegraph was the kind of machine the company used to tell brokers about the price of cocaine. A few days later the stock ticker broke and Edison surprised the manager by fixing it because everyone else had failed to fix it. At that time, the manager offered him $ 5 for a supervisor job. It was great. Edison's busy brain continued his experiments on the stock ticker. It made it so much better that the president of the Goldland Stock Telegraph Company, Jazel Marcel Lefferts, expressed his interest. The leaflets sent Edison a payday and asked what amount he would take to patent his stock. Edison made a decision that he would say $ 5 and accept up to $ 5. He hesitated and said, "Well do Jazel Fur, you offer me .....", Leffer Toss thought for a moment and then said, "Do you accept 3 dollar ? For a moment Edison found it difficult to control himself. He grabbed the desk to keep himself upright and said gently yes! I think it will be fine.

Magic of Menlo Park

23 years ago Edison established his first workshop in Newyark, New Jersey, with money from Lefferts. It was there that he began to manufacture his own stock-ticker. In the year 2, he modified the typewriter's steel components with wood. It also corrected the intonation and ink distribution of words. Edison Improved Typewriter It was possible to write with machine speed much faster than Yes. Edison Menlo came in. That same year, he improved the telephone by adding a car bin transmitter. This was a very important step in making the telephone workable. Before this change people had to smell the telephone very loudly. Edison's inventive phonograph or record player has been named the most innovative invention in the world. In this regard, no one had ever made a practical model of phonograph, and the specimen was brand new and untouched. Edison has always called phonograph his favorite invention. The idea of a phonograph came about when he was trying to find ways to automatically record telegraph messages. He wanted to record messages on a rotating plate on paper pads. That disk is like today's phonograph. He was walking around. Edison learned from his telegraph analyst how the diaphragm is being made or how the discharge is triggered in the disc that reacts to the sound waves. He made an opening or one that had a caffeine attached to the cabin. On his neck, one of the elbows was opened in which the opening had been cut. I went or mine! Six o'clock baby eats. And I have promoted a ton of wood. Edison decided that he could recapture those moles rather than give them something. Then he can make the word abusive by saying that he has two. Edison made a note and ordered his cousin's footman to take a cue from Crowley or make it. Croatia did, however, confused her, but he confused her. He was asked to make something that was neither alchemy nor evil, but it was mica goodness. On the contrary, Edison did not destroy anything that could be completely mica-good. C could not imagine who used Edison to make this device but he took it and built it. When the C-C, the cylinder-shaped machine comes with Z. Edison's wings or you ask what it is. Edison unintentionally said, "Oh, this machine will smell. He wrapped the fort's foil on the cylinder's neck! The baby at six o'clock eats. He smelled this alphabet in the machine's silence. The machine gave Edison's words every chance. The croc's face turned white with movement. Edison, however, remains a diamond.

Electrical light (BULB):

Light bulb (bulb) Didn't I like the style of the new photo shot? Many two-headed people worked on this concept for years. The Russian-born Michael Najnier Paula Jiblo was persuaded by Pir's family to be archery at the time, but Edison wanted younger boys and girls who could be used at home and at home. Coin - in fact, it was the gas of the heart that was the main source of energy. In 1879 AD, Edison brought out a successful soliloquy of LED light. He did just that for the second time to observe all the flame minutes, which could illuminate the roaring light. The employee was sent to Azzone and another to the jungles of Japan. He had tried about three thousand things for a minute. On 19 October 1879 , after several attempts, Car Edison's fibers were finally able to be applied to the filament bulb. The bulb gave great light. By the morning of October 7, the precious bulb was burning. Finally on October 7, at 2:30 pm, Edison decided to raise two latches, which caused the bulb to burn. On the 5th of September Edison's lightning flashed a new invention of light. Edison became known all over the world as the magic of Menlo Park. Edison won the patent for electric light in January. Edison did more than 3 experiments for the invention of the bulb. In 9 AD, Edison moved to New Jersey, the large and modern Libya rotary of the West and Najj. He spent most of his time working on his new inventions. He organized many companies to develop his inventions. By the end of the decade, Edison began producing animated films and films. He made a comedy based on the inventions of George Eastman and others. In 2 AD Edison combined phonographs and cameras to create spoken pictures. The machine showed some flaws and Edison put it aside. Other people later fixed the flaws. At first people thought of animated films as a toy, but Edison saw them with the hope that it would be through education. He predicted that one day it would change other ways of teaching. Some of his later inventions and distortions include storage irons Tissimeters, cement mixers, duct phones and photocopying machines. From his first patented invention (Golden Artificial Plant to Artificial Rubber) to Edison's society Participation continued at the same pace. He died in the West and Najj on 18 October 1931 at the age of 84.

Edison’s Friends:

Edison had no special close friends. He often liked to be with Henry Ford, Harvey Fairestone and John Barrows. But he worked hard for hours, not having much time for friends. Used to be Throughout Edison's life, his work has always been a joy and a friend to him. Edison was a musician. Despite being deaf, he claimed he could hear the speaker of the phonograph with his skull. Edison was not a religious man but he believed in great intelligence. One time he told his friend that although he is known as a great inventor in the world, he cannot create even the simplest of life. Edison's most important work for the world was not only to invent electric light, but also to map the world's first power plant to reach millions of people. Edison received so many awards for his achievements that he had to say that I needed a mole to produce them. In 1956, Edison's laboratory was declared a national heritage. In 1959, her house was also declared a national heritage. The fact is that not only in life but also after death, the honor and fame that came to the part of Edison, which is very fortunate.

#informational

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justanoutlawfic · 7 years ago

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Confessions: Chapt. 8 [Rolling With The Punches]

Story Summary: They say first comes love, then comes marriage, followed by the baby. For Regina and Robin, things go backwards.

Chapter Summary: Regina struggles with the guilt she feels over knowing tha she wouldn’t take back what happened. Turns out, she’s not alone.

Also on AO3

The movie went great for Regina, Bryony and Roland. They sat together, laughing at the latest Pixar creation. Bryony seemed to be able to follow it just fine with her hearing aid turned up. She only had to ask Regina what was said a couple of times, which surprised her. As soon as the movie let out, she texted Robin asking how things were going. He said that they were still only three quarters of the way done with the aquarium and that they needed some more time before they could meet up. Regina decided to take the little ones with her to the park near the theater.

She learned that Bryony liked the slides the best. Luckily, the park wasn’t too crowded, so she could go down as much as she wanted. Roland ran into a friend of his, playing with him in the play structure. The friend’s mom approached Regina, a small smile on her face.

“You must be Regina, Robin’s wife.”

That title was still hard to adjust to. Regina nodded. “Yes.”

“I’m Aurora, that’s P.J.” She pointed over to the red head that was playing with Roland. “Where’s Robin?”

“We decided to split up the kids, get to know them individually.”

“I can’t imagine going through what you two are. I don’t know what Mulan and I would do.”

“You just have to do what’s best for the kids.”

“But does it change how you feel about your other daughter? I mean, Bryony is your flesh and blood. If none of this had happened, you never would’ve met…Eva, Robin said her name was?”

“Evie,” Regina corrected, folding her arms over her chest, suddenly feeling a bit uncomfortable. “Short for Evangeline. And I…I wouldn’t trade either of my daughters for the world.”

“You’re a better person than I. I don’t know if I’d ever be able to forgive the nurse that screwed up on that one.”

Regina had nearly forgotten the story they had told other people. They didn’t want Bryony to ever find out that it had been Cora or the why, so they had played it off as a hospital error. It wasn’t that hard to believe. Zelena had sent her baby straight to the nursery and Regina was having surgery. It was hours before the children would be reunited with the parents who would raise them.

Would Regina ever forgive her mother for this? Was it right that she was angry with her? Aurora was right. If Cora had never stepped in, she would’ve raised Bryony from birth. She never would’ve missed a second. Maybe there would’ve been other choices that would’ve been made.

Yet, she never would’ve gotten Evie. How could she be so angry, while also not wanting to change how things turned out?

She was quiet for the rest of the night, only asking Evie and Henry how their day with Robin was. She was happy to see that Evie was getting closer to Robin. They definitely weren’t anywhere close to being true father and daughter yet, but she actually spoke to him and sat next to him at the diner. Bryony and Roland chatted as well, wanting to fill their father in on everything they had done.

Robin apparently noticed, because once Roland, Bryony and Evie had gone to bed and Henry went to play video games, he brought it up.

“You want to spill why you’re so quiet? Did something happen at the movies?”

“No. At the park, we ran into P.J and his mom.”

Robin let out a sigh. “What’d Aurora say? She’s kind of known for having zero filter.”

“It’s nothing.” He gave her a pointed look. “I just…she brought up how forgiving I seem to be about the whole situation and I’m not. I’m so pissed with Cora.”

“So am I. That’s normal.”

“But if I could turn back time, I wouldn’t. I wouldn’t change having Evie in my life.”

Robin frowned. “Well…I suppose I wouldn’t change anything either.”

“But is that, right? The fact that we’re so affected by the switch and yet we wouldn’t go back and change anything?”

“I think it makes us human and good parents. We love our daughters, but we acknowledge that the way we got them was fucked up.”

Regina sighed, running her fingers through her hair. “I guess.”

“It’s okay to feel both ways, like I said, I do too.”

“It helps having someone that gets it. I mean, Mal is a mom…”

“But she’ll never understand this.”

There was another beat of silence as he poured them some tea.

“So, when did Evie lose all the hearing in her left ear?” She asked. “You said she was born with it reduced.”

“According to tests, when she was a little over a year old.”

“And you never…you never considered the cochlear implant?” Robin gave her an odd look. “I did some research into it.”

“Then you know it’s costly and there’s a chance that it won’t work.”

“Of course.” She could see the defensiveness and anger in his eyes. “I wasn’t suggesting we do it. I just…wondered if you wanted to back then.”

“I looked into all the options and they said if I was ever going to, I should before it affected her speech entirely. While it’d potentially make things easier…I just didn’t think it would be worth it. I didn’t want to change a part of her that made her, her.”

Regina felt a strange sense of pride in the pit of her stomach. She had come to the same conclusion and probably would’ve back then, but there was no way that Cora would’ve. She would’ve insisted on the cochlear, she probably would’ve talked Regina into it. Robin had embraced who his daughter was, he didn’t want to change her.

“Besides,” Robin continued. “It’s not something that should be my choice or yours. If Bryony got older and wanted to get it, then it’d be a discussion.”

“I agree.”

“I’ve never wanted to act like it’s something she needs to be ashamed of, it’s why I chose that pre-school for her. There are other kids like her there and I’ve looked into schools that have similar programs.”

“You really embraced this.”

“It was that or go into it ignorant. You’d be surprised how many parents at the school are like it. There’s one mom that won’t even learn sign language and her child is a hundred percent deaf.”

Regina winced. “She sounds like Cora.”

“Probably.” He sighed, running his fingers through his hair. “The way I look at it, these kids are going to face enough adversity in their lives…why start it at home?”

“You’re right.” Regina took his hand. “You’re a good dad, you know?”

Robin softly smiled. “You’re a good mom. Evie and Henry are really smart. I feel like they taught me stuff at the aquarium.”

Regina laughed. “Henry’s the type of kid to pick up a subject and not let it go. I think he rubbed off on Evie. Not necessarily a bad thing.”

“She doesn’t seem to hate me anymore.”

“She never hated you. It’s just new. We talk about how hard all of this is on us, but can you imagine them? Evie’s gone her whole life without a dad, Bryony’s gone hers without a mom. Suddenly this is all thrown at them and they barely have time to process it.”

“They can never know the full truth, can they?”

Regina shook her head. “It’s not even to protect Cora, it’s to protect Bryony. I never want her to feel how I did growing up. Nothing I ever did was good enough, I had to measure up to her. It’d be even worse, feeling like she has to compete with a ghost.”

Robin shook his head. “I’m sorry.”

“What were yours like? You never talk about them.”

Robin looked away and Regina worried she had crossed a line, but eventually, he pulled out a picture from his wallet. It was faded polaroid, turning a bit yellow in the frayed white corners. There was a woman that looked near identical to Evie and a man that shared a lot of Robin’s features.

“They died when I was 10,” he explained.

“Oh, Robin…”

“Please don’t say sorry, everyone says that.”

“I won’t. I just…” She shook her head. “I can’t imagine being that young.”

“I didn’t have any family, so I ended up in the system. No one wants a 10 year old, I guess, so I bounced around a bit until I was 16 and ran away.”

Regina shut her eyes, trying to not imagine a young Robin living on the streets. It was too painful. “You were on your own?”

“Just until I met Marian. She made everything right again.”

She smiled a little. “The people you love can do that.”

“Anyway, my father’s name was Aslan. My mother’s was Kate.”

“You named Bryony after her?”

Robin nodded. “I was going to name her Isabelle Kate, that was what Marian and I had picked out for a little girl. It didn’t seem right, though. She wasn’t Marian’s…she needed a name all her own.”

“I understand. Besides, she doesn’t exactly seem an Isabelle.”

He chuckled. “She doesn’t, does she? It’s weird to think that she could’ve been Evie.”

“That definitely wouldn’t fit.”

“And I can’t see Evie as a “Bryony” either.”

He looked behind Regina, towards the fridge. A picture of Henry and Evie hung there, the two were smiling and wearing matching outfits.

“Maybe this wasn’t fate or destiny, but…it was just supposed to be how things worked out. You were supposed to raise my daughter for the first few years, while I had yours. Maybe we were supposed to meet for a reason.”

Regina arched an eyebrow. “You really think that?”

“I have to. There has to be a good reason for all of this outside Cora being vindictive.”

“It’d certainly make it easier for me to sleep at night.”

“Maybe we’re not supposed to think about it. Cora did what she did and we’re in our situation. If we keep going into the whys or the guilt, it’s only going to make us feel worse. We’re a family now…it’s all going to work out.”

“It’s just hard to rationalize.”

“So don’t try to. Don’t try to plan it out. Let’s just go with it, there’s nothing we can do.”

Robin clearly didn’t know her that well. All of Regina’s life had been planned out, ever since Daniel died. She didn’t schedule in time to get her life flipped upside down, not since her wedding night. She never wanted to be hurt like that again.

That was the thing about events like that, though. A person couldn’t plan for them. If they could, they’d choose not to do it in the first place.

She was a perfectionist, but if any of it was going to work, she’d have to let go a bit. She had to roll with the punches. She had figured it out once, she could do it again.

Regina raised her mug. “To rolling with the punches.”

“To rolling with the punches.”

Their mugs clashed together and they stared into each other’s eyes. Robin could tell that she was still trying to figure out the future. He knew that neither of them could predict what the next few months would hold for them.

They’d spend them trying to become a family. They’d spend them getting to know the children they didn’t know were out there, along with the boys that came along with the package of their new family. Bryony would get closer to her mother and Evie would adjust to having a father in her life period. Henry would find himself going to Robin for advice, especially when he got his first crush around Valentine’s Day. Roland would ask Regina to help him with his project for his first Science Fair entry. The girls would get closer, even referring to one another as sisters. Robin and Regina would find them sneaking into each other’s room to share a bed.

But what they couldn’t see happening was the night that they would spend together…or the major fight that would ensue.

#confessions verse #outlaw queen #outlaw queen au #oq #oq au #regal believer #regal believer au #outlaw peanut #outlaw peanut au #outlaw dimples #outlaw dimples au #regal peanut #regal peanut au #archer queen #archer queen au #dimples queen #dimples queen au

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auradonuniversity · 5 years ago

Photo

Meet The Coquette. They’re the child of Lumière, a junior at Auradon University and hails from Auradon. Some say they look like Maddison Jaizani and they’re TAKEN.

Name: Marie-Renoir Noémie Lumiére

Age: 21 years old

Pronouns: She/Her/They/Them (demiwoman)

Sexuality: Pansexual, Demiromantic

Occupation: Private Ballet Instructor

Sports and Clubs: A Capella, Gymnastics, AU F.M.

Major: Education

Biography

she is the bridge between two cultures. the connecting sinew of two different worlds. marie-renoir noémie lumiére is born in the midst of her parents honeymoon period on a dewy winter morning. her father is committed to monogamy, until he isn’t. her mother is content, until she is not. they are HAPPY, until they aren’t. looking back, the fault lies on no one’s shoulders in particular. the problem lay not with them as individuals, but them as a partnership - a lesson, in it’s own way, that good friends should try to avoid that leap into romance that they thought would take them all the way. by the time that she is celebrating a year of LIFE, her mother and father have amicably split ; no hard feelings, just endless respect. custody is verbally agreed, not bitterly battled. her father can ensure the finest education, the finest things in life - summers will be spent with her mother, while the rest of the year she will call her father’s abode her home. they grow up with two languages flowing fluently from their tongue, with an appreciation for each half of THEMSELVES that few people possess in full.

the time spent with her mother is spent soaking up the sun and being the child that they are. summers are freedom, in their books, from all the expectations of the rest of the year. burdens that certainly feel like so, though they try to act as if they don’t. at home with their father, they are privately educated and expected to excel. this is fine. they cantake that pressure on their shoulders with grace, they think, so long as they are always able to dance. it’s an unexpected talent. in day to day, they are clumsy - even as a child, they bumped their head and scratched their knees in an all manner ofavoidable accidents. they will never be one to wear heels in fear of toppling, and so, the insistence to be enrolled with a local company after watching a performance of swan lake makes her father chuckle. he expects her to quit when she realizes that she isn’t capable of such delicate movements and graceful twirls, but six months later when he sits in the audience and witnesses her perform in don quixote, he is not able to hide the TEARS that spring to his eyes. so begins a lifetime of ballet lessons four times weekly, recitals every other month. they swiftly become one of the company’s most prized students, a prima ballerina in all ways but title. they are known to be clumsy, and they laugh along with others who poke harmless fun - but when they tie their pointe shoes on and step onto a stage, they are something different. something beautiful. something world ending.

their mother remarries. their father does not. they love their stepfather and later on, their little half siblings with all of their might - they tolerate half of their fathers conquests, though some leave truly lasting impressions. still, there is no ill will, and every christmas they gather as one to celebrate. it is strange, she thinks. this set up that they have. as they grow older, as they share details with their friends, they are told and they realize that people don’t think that it’s exactly normal. she asks her mother, one day, why she smiles so widely at the new partner on her fathers arm each year. why she isn’t hurt by his actions. why she didn’t stay. she’s genuinely CURIOUS, and her mother doesn’t treat the subject as taboo - she fixes a soft expression in place that is reserved just for her, and the words she says form a key part of noémie’s character : your father’s heart is simply too big for just one person, and mine is not. i’ll always love him. he’ll always love me. it’s no ones fault that the way we love wasn’t compatible.

they think, later, that they relate a little bit to that sentiment. that aside from natural confidence, they might just have inherited that too big heart from their FATHER, too. they’re electric. growing close to people isn’t hard when you’re a magnetic force, and noémie is never without company. she values deep connection, the most. she doesn’t think that she could ever fall for someone who didn’t know her blind. but she learns, as she grows, that she enjoys fleeting romance. even if she knows that she won’t allow it last, it is still nice to be entwined with another’s life, for a time.

Character Traits

positive: sagacious, congenial, audacious negative: pertinacious, inscrutable, acerbic

Headcanons

noémie loves love, but perhaps is not as built for it as she would like. she gets a certain thrill from flirtation and she enjoys being with people. it isn’t a crime, she thinks, to date often and never truly commit. there have, of course, been those who have treated it as such. she’s not a stranger to slurs, and she knows that there are certain rumors ( some of which there’s truth to ) spread of her, routinely. but no one raised primarily by the casanova that lumiére is has much SHAME attached to who they are.

she has gone by noémie for so long, sometimes even she forgets that it isn’t her GIVEN name. she can thank her paternal grandmother for the clunky first name that she has never quite enjoyed ; she died the same week that she was BORN, missing her grandchild’s arrival into the world by little more than a day. it was meant to be anhonor, she’s told, but if it was… then why did it weigh her down so much? perhaps it offended her father, in a way, but at least noémie was hers.

she had just turned four when she was struck down with bacterial meningitis. her mother thought that it was nothing but a summer flu, but when her fever began to reach unheard of heights, the PANIC set in. the doctor who saw to her insisted she be brought to the nearest emergency room immediately, and she didn’t see the outside of that hospital again until two weeks had passed. she survived UNSCATHED, at least - in a sense. single sided deafness in her right ear, specifically. her parents were told that she was incredibly lucky that she was even alive, and that they should be gratefulfor such a small price. they didn’t feel the way they were told they should, but they certainly passed on the sentiment to their little girl when she grew and wondered why she was not quite the same to the other kids she knew. her mother learned bsl and her father learned lsf, and she learned enough in both to make her life that little bit easier. it was by no means easy - the learning or the life that followed - but she was young and adaptable, and it served as a harsh reminder that sometimes, the world will take. in her mid teens, she underwent the surgery to implant a transcranial cros - a bone anchored hearing aid, to you and i, that provided a MARKED improvement.

Connections

The Aficionado: The Coquette and the Aficionado got paired together for a project during their sophomore year, but have somehow managed to keep up a casual friendship ever since. And it’s nice. And not just because with him around she essentially has a personal photographer.

The Anthromaniac: Being the child of Lumière essentially guaranteed that the Coquette would grow up in the vicinity of the Roux family, and though the Coquette isn’t particularly close to either Roux, they do have a certain protectiveness over both of them. Maybe that’s why the Coquette isn’t the biggest fan of the Anthromaniac. After all, the King is supposed to be with someone regal, right? And the jungle? Not regal.

The Ecclesiastic: The Ecclesiastic has very strong religious beliefs which rule their life. The Coquette… well, no so much. The Coquette is working on getting to know the Ecclesiastic, trying to see if any of their super strong morals are a little more flexible than they appear to be.

#junior #taken #takenf #takenr

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red-faced-wolf · 8 years ago

Text

1: Name Nicholas 2: Age 21 3: Fears Being left behind. Like my friends get successful and have families and I'm left in my home town by myself 4: 3 things I love friends, family, food, dogs 5: 4 turns on Nice butt, beautiful eyes, fun and easy to talk to personalities, great taste in music and humor 6: 4 turns off People who are rude, don't tip at restaurants or are shitty tippers and treat their servers like dogs, bad hygiene and someone who has a cold personality 7: My best friend @arcticvixxen who's been my closest friend for three years and has always had my back no matter what and my friend David who I went to high school with who's practically my brother at this point 8: Sexual orientation\ straight 9: My best first date First year of college met this girl in the smokers corner of our campus (I used to smoke a lot but quit) and I asked to see Annabelle and I hate scary movies but she loved it and we got dinner after and walked her to her front door and kissed her under her porch light. 10: How tall am I 5′11" 11: What do I miss Being with a certain person even though I know I shouldn't think about it 12: What time were I born somewhere within the 24 hours encompassing March 20th 13: Favourite color blue 14: Do I have a crush I do but I can't say who it is 15: Favourite quote “Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in one pretty and well preserved piece, but to slide across the finish line broadside, thoroughly used up, worn out, leaking oil, and shouting wow, what a ride!" -unknown Or "faster, faster, until the thrill of speed overcomes the fear of death" -Hunter S Thompson 16: Favourite place My friends house or the bar 17: Favourite food delicious food 18: Do I use sarcasm when appropriate 19: What am I listening to right now I'm not the devil by Cody jinks 20: First thing I notice in new person what they’re wearing (to be honest) 21: Shoe size 10.5 22: Eye color Green 23: Hair color Brown 24: Favourite style of clothing Boots, jeans, and tshirt with baseball cap 25: Ever done a prank call? yeah 26: Meaning behind my URL Latin translation of polycythemia 27: Favourite movie Need for speed 28: Favourite song changes constantly 29: Favourite band A lot 30: How I feel right now Tired, kinda lonely 31: Someone I love Family, Friends 32: My current relationship status I'm single as hell 33: My relationship with my parents Great 34: Favourite holiday Don't like holidays 35: Tattoos and piercing I have None 36: Tattoos and piercings I want A sleeve with a nature theme 37: The reason I joined Tumblr Friend talked me into it 38: Do I and my last ex hate each other? I'm not very happy is all I'm gonna say 39: Do I ever get “good morning” or “good night ” texts? sometimes 40: Have I ever kissed the last person you texted? No. Dats gay bruh 41: When did I last hold hands? Several years ago... 42: How long does it take me to get ready in the morning? about half an hour 43: Have You shaved your legs in the past three days? Not even in the last three years 44: Where am I right now? Bed 45: If I were drunk & can’t stand, who’s taking care of me? Myself 46: Do I like my music loud or at a reasonable level? pretty loud. I'm partially deaf because of machinery and music 47: Do I live with my Mom and Dad? Yes 48: Am I excited for anything? to not work 49: Do I have someone of the opposite sex I can tell everything to? Yes 50: How often do I wear a fake smile? when I wait tables 51: When was the last time I hugged someone? Hugged a friend at work 52: What if the last person I kissed was kissing someone else right in front of me? Ugh. Wouldn't feel too good 53: Is there anyone I trust even though I should not? lol so many people 54: What is something I disliked about today? Can't think of anything really 55: If I could meet anyone on this earth, who would it be? My little sis! 56: What do I think about most? the future 57: What’s my strangest talent? I can wiggle my ears 58: Do I have any strange phobias? I guess 59: Do I prefer to be behind the camera or in front of it? both 60: What was the last lie I told? I honestly don’t remember 61: Do I prefer talking on the phone or video chatting online? Skype 62: Do I believe in ghosts? How about aliens? Ghosts yes aliens no 63: Do I believe in magic? nah, just miracles 64: Do I believe in luck? Yes 65: What’s the weather like right now? 50 and raining 66: What was the last book I’ve read? Don't remember 67: Do I like the smell of gasoline? no but I love the smell of diesel 68: Do I have any nicknames? Nickolodeon, Nicky, nickers, battle, salt, nick 69: What was the worst injury I’ve ever had? Broke my leg and my left collar bone. Hurt really bad 70: Do I spend money or save it? Save 71: Can I touch my nose with a tounge? just tried. nope haha 72: Is there anything pink in 10 feet from me? no 73: Favourite animal? Dogs 74: What was I doing last night at 12 AM? Pounding a frozen slab of meat. Jk I was at work cleaning tables 75: What do I think is Satan’s last name is? ?????? That was random 76: What’s a song that always makes me happy when I hear it? Outta this world by genetikk 77: How can you win my heart? compliment me and buy me food or scratch my back omg 78: What would I want to be written on my tombstone? I don't know 79: What is my favorite word? Moist ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) 80: My top 5 blogs on tumblr Too lazy but a good few 81: If the whole world were listening to me right now, what would I say? Calm tf down 82: Do I have any relatives in jail? Don't know. I have a cousin that's in and out and he's an alcoholic but we don't talk to him anymore 83: I accidentally eat some radioactive vegetables. They were good, and what’s even cooler is that they endow me with the super-power of my choice! What is that power? teleportation 84: What would be a question I’d be afraid to tell the truth on? this one 85: What is my current desktop picture? the default one that came with the computer 86: Had sex? yes 87: Bought condoms? yes 88: Gotten pregnant? no 89: Failed a class? Yes 90: Kissed a boy? No 91: Kissed a girl? yes 92: Have I ever kissed somebody in the rain? No 93: Had a job? yes 94: Left the house without my wallet? yes 95: Bullied someone on the internet? no 96: Had sex in public? yes 97: Played on a sports team? yes 98: Smoked weed? once 99: Did drugs? no 100: Smoked cigarettes? Yes 101: Drank alcohol? yes 102: Am I a vegetarian/vegan? no 103: Been overweight? I was 255lbs in August last year 104: Been underweight? no 105: Been to a wedding? yes 106: Been on the computer for 5 hours straight? yes 107: Watched TV for 5 hours straight? yes 108: Been outside my home country? No 109: Gotten my heart broken? so many times 110: Been to a professional sports game? No? 111: Broken a bone? yes 112: Cut myself? Not intentionally 113: Been to prom? yes 114: Been in airplane? Yes 115: Fly by helicopter? Yes!!! 116: What concerts have I been to? I don't remember 117: Had a crush on someone of the same sex? no 118: Learned another language? I speak a little French but not much 119: Wore make up? No 120: Lost my virginity before I was 18? No 121: Had oral sex? yes 122: Dyed my hair? No 123: Voted in a presidential election? yes 124: Rode in an ambulance? Yes 125: Had a surgery? yes 126: Met someone famous? yes 127: Stalked someone on a social network? No? 128: Peed outside? yes 129: Been fishing? yes 130: Helped with charity? yes 131: Been rejected by a crush? yes 132: Broken a mirror? No 133: What do I want for birthday? A rear taillight and a back tire for my motorcycle 134: How many kids do I want and what will be their names? 2 a girl and boy, Shelby for the girl and Thomas for the boy 135: Was I named after anyone? No, but i have the same last name of all of the males in my family (james) 36: Do I like my handwriting? It's messy as shit tbh 137: What was my favourite toy as a child? my BB gun 138: Favourite Tv Show? depends on my mood 139: Where do I want to live when older? Alaska or Tennessee 140: Play any musical instrument? I can play the clarinet 141: One of my scars, how did I get it? My lower leg where some barbed wire took out a little chunk 142: Favourite pizza toping? Lamb 143: Am I afraid of the dark? No 144: Am I afraid of heights? Terrified 145: Have I ever got caught sneaking out or doing anything bad? nah, never tried to sneak out 146: Have I ever tried my hardest and then gotten disappointed in the end yes 147: What I’m really bad at studying 148: What my greatest achievments are Getting recognized at my job for my marketing skills and handling people at work 149: The meanest thing somebody has ever said to me Something one of my exes told me before she broke up with me 150: What I’d do if I won in a lottery travel and bring my friends and then settle down 151: What do I like about myself my values and personality and my weight loss 152: My closest Tumblr friend? Hell I don't know they all live far away 153: Something I fantasise about Being content 154: Any thoughts on the paranormal? not really 155: Free question: Any question you’d like to ask, be it rude, fun, curious, strange, sexual, random, meme related, etc! That took forever @alotteofchar

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milehighcity-rp · 8 years ago

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“I take my chances every chance I get.”

Name: Summer Jacobs

FC: Haley Bennett

Age / Birthday: 23 / 10 December 1993

Job: Med Student / Masseuse

Apartment: 501

Personality traits:

+ Goofy, Passionate, Intelligent, Understanding

- Self Conscious, Sensitive, Selective, Closed Off

It is no secret that Summer grew up with money. Born Summer Lynn Jacobs on December 10th, 1994 as the second youngest of four children to Maria, a renown surgeon and Andrew Jacobs, a neurologist, she grew up around money. Being dragged to parties held by other wealthy families and surrounded by other rich kids, she grew up knowing no other lifestyle. The parties, the money, the private schools, asking for something and never getting “no we can’t afford that” and the snobbiness, wanting everyone to think that they had a picture perfect family when, eventually, it would become the opposite. Never having to struggle growing up, it was obvious that their parents wanted a lot for them and had high hopes for all their children, wanting all of them to strive academically. Her sister grew up to be a surgeon just like her mother, her brother branched out and wanted to be a lawyer and her younger sister, following in the footsteps of most of her family, wanted to be a doctor as well.

From a young age, around eight or nine, Summer appreciated art. While drawing and painting was her favorite, she loved anything that seemed to inspire people and decided that was what she wanted to do, inspire people. Upon her mother hearing this idea however, she shot it down. Insisting that she’d never be successful because it’s hard and there’s a lot of people, saying she’d never make money and it would be a waste. Summer was heartbroken and her want to become an artist slowly faded into an appreciation for art instead, rather than a want to pursue it. She believes that’s where her want to become a doctor came from, to inspire people, to help people, children, who can’t help themselves. However, before she became a doctor, before she even entered high school, her whole life changed forever. One sleepover would change her family forever.

Summer had been to sleepovers before, not too many, but she had been to them. Her mother never liked her associating with those other children (or the families of those who were not as wealthy as they were). However, her father always managed to convince her mother to let her go, to let her have fun. That night, Summer woke up in the early morning not feeling well and not wanting to call her parents, instead she called her older brother, Scott. Scott had moved out a couple months ago after wanting a place of his own that was closer to school. The two siblings were close despite their seven-year age gap and when Summer called him that night he didn’t hesitate to come pick her up. Driving back, was when it happened. They were going through an intersection; it was their turn to go. The light was green, the road was clear and nothing was stopping them from going. As he drove through the middle of the intersection a giant truck came speeding towards them, hitting Scott’s side. The car flipped and flipped and flipped and finally came to a stop.

When she woke up, almost a day later, the first thing she noticed was her hearing. While she could hear, she noticed the dramatic change from the previous days and immediately started to panic. The doctors explained that the crash had caused moderate hearing loss in her right ear and mild hearing loss in her left. Not deaf, he had told her, Hard of Hearing, she did not have enough hearing loss to make her deaf, but enough to make it impact her life, everything she did. He told her they could do surgeries and cochlear implants and hearing aids, but he had also told her that they would never be able to restore her hearing to what it had been before. When her parents asked her if she wanted the surgery she remembers shaking her head, telling her that she knows that the surgery could make her hearing worse and she was just happy she could hear and she instead got hearing aids and learnt sign language.

The next thing she asked was her about her brother. She wanted to know where he was, if he was okay and when she could see him. She remembers vaguely seeing him before she passed out, his body just lying there lifelessly. When she asked this, her parents got a certain look on their face, telling her that she couldn’t see him yet because he wasn’t well enough and she’d be able to see him in a couple days along with the rest of her siblings. She found out on the third day of the lie. Her sister told her when she visited her. She disagreed with them not telling her and told her the second she saw her. Her first reaction was denial. At first she thought that everyone was lying to her, playing a mean prank on her and it wasn’t until a couple days later that it sunk it. A couple days after that the guilt started to sink in, that she had killed her brother by calling him that night. If she hadn’t called him, he wouldn’t have died, she’d still have all her hearing.

Her sisters never blamed her, for the accident. They knew that it was just an unfortunate accident, one that, while it could have been avoided, was not at the fault of their thirteen-year-old sister. Her father was upset, but never blamed his daughter, just the drunk driver who had been driving double the speed limit that night. Their mother however was a different story. After the accident their mother spiraled down hill. Summer knew that her mother blamed her for what happened, Scott was her favorite, even if she never said anything. She started drinking a couple years after the accident and soon enough she was an alcoholic, drinking night after night after night, yelling at their father, her sisters, at her for taking her son away from her. That was when their father broke it off, he couldn’t deal with her anymore and around that same time her older sister moved out, not wanting to deal with their mother. She loved her siblings, but she knew that she needed to get out.

However, that was all behind closed doors. To everyone else, they looked like a picture perfect family, they all got along, her sisters were doing well at school, she was doing “fine”. She knew her mother didn’t hate the fact that Summer was deaf, but she knew that she didn’t like it. She knew that her mother didn’t like something that Summer was unable to control. She knew that her mother never learnt sign language, never even attempted because Summer could “hear” with her hearing aids just fine. She knew that her mother always was curious of what other people thought about her having a daughter “like that” (she heard what some of her mother’s friends said about her “the poor thing”, “it must be hard for her”, “it must be hard for you”). She knew that her mother feared her reputation would go down because her daughter was different. She wasn’t part of “the norm”.

Summer was also bisexual. She had known for years but her mother’s religious beliefs always got in the way. She knew that her mother hated gay people and bisexual people and people like that. She thought that they were disgusting and a sin and ‘ruined their reputation in the city’ or something. Summer had known about her bisexuality since that crush on Anna from her third period English class, she realized that she liked girls as well as guys and though it took her a bit to really understand her sexuality and come to terms with it, she finally had a grip on it. She finally accepted herself and who she was and she was happy. Her mother found out in the March of her first year at CU Denver, majoring in biology to get ready for med school. She had come home from school to see her mother sitting on the couch, a bottle of beer in her hand and a disappointed look on her face.

According to her mother, someone had seen her kissing a girl she had been dating at the time, someone at her mother’s church and she told her. Summer knew her mother’s stance on people like that, it was that reason Summer had decided on never coming out as bisexual to her mother, but that plan had changed. She kicked her out, gave her fifteen minutes to pack and cut off her college fund, refusing to pay for someone like that. She moved in with her sister for the remainder of her undergrad, got a job, took out student loans and even refusing her father’s money. She knew that he made lot of money, but she didn’t feel right taking it. She hadn’t earned it.

At first Summer wasn’t sure if med school would work out. She originally voiced her thoughts of not going to med school or postponing it until she had a solid job to help the costs of living but her father and sisters refused. They knew how hard she had worked to get where she was and helped her out as much as they could and now approaching her last year at University of Colorado School of Medicine before moving into her residency, pediatrics seeming to interest her. Moving into a new apartment, her dad convinced her to let him help her pay the rent, at least until she got a job and she happily agreed, almost drowning in years of debt. However, she also feels conflicted. Just recently, her mother reached out to her saying she wanted to talk and now, Summer feels hesitant to want to talk to her mother and reintroduce her into her life.

#npbio

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lifeinstereo-blog1 · 8 years ago

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An Introduction.

The official first post of my blog! Yay!

I feel like it’s only right to start off with a little more background information about myself. this might be long. Bear with me here.

I am a nineteen (well, I will be nineteen tomorrow...so it’s close enough) year old female who just happened to be born completely and utterly deaf in both ears. I can’t hear anything. Nothing. To put that into perspective, I can’t hear a gun being fired, a jet taking off, people screaming at me (which is nice in some situations, hah), pretty much anything you throw at me, I can’t hear.

My parents did not know (I missed the hearing test requirement for all newborns by about a year) until I was nine months old. Although, my mom had sneaking suspicions starting at about six months. I wasn’t startling or turning my head to sounds. I’d sleep easily. I believe one day, I was sitting on the floor unaware that my mom was behind me. My mom had gotten pots and pans and banged on them and made noise. No response from me. After that was when I was taken to the doctor and it was confirmed I was deaf as heck.

It is believed what caused my deafness was a virus called cytomegalovirus, or abbreviated as CMV. Most of the population gets it sometime in their lifetime and it’s no big deal. It basically shows up as a cold or maybe doesn’t have any symptoms. The only populations that should be at least somewhat concerned about it is very young children, the elderly and those who are pregnant. Emphasis on the last population. That’s where CMV can do the most damage. My mom was pregnant with me and must have picked it up from somewhere. But she didn’t know she had contracted it. She was never sick, she never even had any morning sickness. I ended up getting the brunt of the CMV. I was born with profound bilateral sensorineural deafness, poor leg muscle tone, and slight brain damage. The brain damage was superficial and I grew out of that. The poor leg muscle tone resulted in a delayed ability to walk and years of physical therapy in elementary school.’The bilateral sensorineural (having to do with the cochlea, it’s hair cells and the auditory nerve) deafness was due to the CMV stunting the growth of the thousands of the tiny hair cells that are found in the cochlea. So basically, my cochleas are bald. If there are any hair cells, they’re either broken, non-functioning, or there just isn’t enough of them to actually produce any sensation of sound.

In normal hearing, sound travels through the air by vibrating the molecules in air and those vibrating air molecules hits the eardrum (tympanic membrane) and causes it to vibrate. This in turn, causes the ossicles (those three tiny ear bones called the malleus, incus, and stapes... better known as the hammer, anvil, and stirrup, respectively) to move. The stapes is connected to something called the oval window. The oval window is part of the cochlear-vestibular structure and when the stapes vibrates, it causes fluid that is inside of the cochlea (the snail-shaped structure in the inner ear) to move. The cochlea contains the organ of Corti, which has four rows of hair cells that stick out from the surface. When the fluid moves, it makes those hair cells move as well. When those hair cells move, it creates electrical impulses that are sent to the auditory (hearing) nerve, The brain receives these signals and perceives them as sound. To me, I think of the whole process like a domino effect. You take out one domino, then it won’t work. That domino in this scenario is my hair cells. My eardrums and ossicles function perfectly fine, but because I don’t have these microscopic little things, I can’t hear sh*t. But that’s fine with me.

After much research. my parents found out about cochlear implants. They took me to an audiologist to see if I was a candidate. I failed all hearing tests. With pediatric cases, a 3-month trial with hearing aids is required. We tried that, and there was no observable benefit from them. I had CT scans of my temporal bones done to look for normal cochlea structure. My cochleas were normal and not ossified. It was made sure that my family and I had realistic expectations and the necessary motivation to train me to hear with the cochlear implant, since it would take a lot of work and practice. After all evalutations, I was deemed to be an excellent candidate for a CI. However, doctors said not to expect much, since CIs aren’t a miracle cure, They said I probably wouldn’t like music, that it would be screechy and unpleasant. But that was okay with my parents. They wanted me to have environmental awareness so that I would be safe from cars passing by or hear sirens, fire alarms, etc. After much consideration and trepidation, my parents decided to go ahead with the surgery. In November of 2000, I was implanted with Clarion’s (it would later become Advanced Bionics, one of the three cochlear implant companies) C1.2 implant, the newest technology they had at the time. During the candidacy process, I was learning and using ASL (American Sign Language) so that I could communicate with my parents and others.

A cochlear implant bypasses the non-functioning part of the ear (in this case, it’s the cochlea) and sends electrical signals to the auditory nerve. It essentially takes the place of those hair cells. A CI consists of two main parts: the external and internal parts. The external part consists of a sound processor that can be worn behind the ear (BTE) or off the ear, depending on your preference (I prefer the BTE version). The sound processor is powered by a battery that slides on and off of it. The battery can be disposable or rechargeable. The sound processor has microphones that pick up sound and the processor sorts out the sound into information that is sent through a wire to the headpiece that is attached magnetically to the internal processor. The information is sent via FM radio communication to the internal chip which is a computer that sends electrical impulses down an electrode array that is inserted in the cochlea. Depending on how the sound is sorted, certain electrodes will be stimulated and the electric impulses from the electrodes come into contact with the auditory nerve. The brain perceives this as sound, albeit, a different type of sound.

When my first CI was activated, sound actually scared me. Eventually I got used to it and it took about two years for it to really get to full potential. However, I still did a lot of speech therapy and listening practice, as well as just daily activities like having conversations and listening to music—that’s right, I defied the doctor’s expectations and enjoyed music! I even joined the school string orchestra and played viola from fourth grade until I graduated. It’s been a deep passion of mine.

Even though I exceeded expectations and was able to gain full use of English, my cochlear implant wasn’t perfect. And it still isn’t. I still had an interpreter up until seventh grade, then had captioning from eighth to tenth grade, then after that I was completely self-reliant. I can carry a conversation near perfectly or perfectly if it is one-on-one in a quiet setting and I can lip-read. In noise, it gets a little harder, I rely more on lip-reading in that situation. The more noise there is, the more I need to lip-read. I often have a hard time following a conversation between multiple people with background noise. Think of something like a school cafeteria or a noisy restaurant (even harder if it’s dimly lit!). Those situations are the worst for me. I can talk over the phone sometimes. If the person’s voice is loud. clear, and at a normal pace, I can understand them okay, I will probably have to ask them to repeat things several times but it is not impossible. I prefer to talk with speakerphone on and have someone with me so they can relay information to me if I don’t get everything. However, these days I use a videophone so I have an interpreter sign what the other person is saying. I can sign back and the interpreter voices for me, or I can voice for myself. I prefer to voice for myself. It’s a pretty neat tool to use. Since I only have 1 CI, it’s basically equivalent to hearing out of one ear. That means I also have a hard time locating where sound comes from. If someone yells out my name, I sometimes have to do a full 360 to find where the person is. I also hear in “2D” since I only have 1 CI. I can’t really say for myself because I have no comparison, but apparently 1 CI/1 ear only gives you a flat quality of sound. There’s no depth or fullness to it. Sound isn't as rich and layered. So it will be interesting going from hearing in mono to hearing in stereo. Listening to music and my experience in orchestra is a whole other blog post.

Enough about my ears. Other things about me... I am a freshman in college who is majoring in biomedical science and on the pre-med track. If you couldn’t tell, the detailed description of how hearing works should’ve tipped you off that I’m a science nerd. Other than science, I enjoy art and music. I draw with graphite, charcoal, and prismacolors. Portraits are my favorite thing to draw. I paint with watercolor and I like to combine abstract and realistic concepts in my paintings. I like to play music on my viola, as well as listen to it. I listen to a wide range of music, from classical to rap. However, I absolutely love to listen to string music. I also am a huge, huge fan of the 1965 movie production of the Sound of Music and listen to the soundtrack constantly. Julie Andrews’s voice is just magical. I also love to read (although I have to admit I haven't been reading a lot recently) and am a fan of Greek mythology. Other than that, I like to spend my time on the internet on social media and other websites like YouTube, I am a YouTube addict and love watching videos (although I’d like it if all of them were captioned so I wouldn’t have to use as much effort to listen and understand the videos). If you go to any of my social media profiles, you’ll see that I’m pretty passionate about social justice. I like to learn and educate myself about things that are happening right now in our politics and culture.

That basically sums me up. I think this was a good (and quite long) self-introductory post. I really look forward to making more posts in the future!

Ashley

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riaa-isabel · 5 years ago

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Scarlett was doing so much better! She was on Nasal Cannula and that light at the end of the tunnel which seemed unreachable was finally coming into focus. It was as if the dust from a sandstorm had finally settled down and we could find our way home.

I remember as I was leaving Scarlett’s pod one day, I ran into one of her doctors. Remember the one with the pretty blue eyes? Haha. She stopped me and we chatted for a bit about how well Scarlett was doing and how unbelievable it was that we’d come so far. She then shared the best news I had ever heard! She said, “Don’t be surprised if we tell you within the next week or two that you’ll be going home.” My heart literally started to race with excitement! The rollercoaster was finally coming to an end! I remember walking away with tears in my eyes and a huge smile on my face. I couldn’t wait to share the good news with everyone!

I should’ve known better. In all of the excitement, I forgot that with each step forward it was usually followed by two steps back. It was a dance and Scarlett was leading.

The Little Princess sleeping in her bed.

Although Scarlett was doing really well, the amount of oxygen she still needed to support her was too great for the doctors to feel comfortable enough to send her home. It was time to play another game of “let’s try to take Scarlett’s oxygen away without her noticing.” It was FUN! (not really) Every other day they tried to lower her settings and somedays she was completely okay with it; it didn’t seem to phase her at all. Other days though…even the slightest change would throw her off and she just HAD to have that extra push to help her out. (I’m telling you, she is a DIVA!)

In the meantime, however, there were a lot of other things to focus on. Think of it as a “NICU discharge checklist” and we had to check each item off one by one.

As Scarlett’s lungs continued to grow stronger, we worked with her on other important areas of development. Every day an Occupational Therapist would come to the unit and work with her. Because she had spent so much time (basically the first four months of her life) laying in a bed the majority of the time, her body was very stiff and not used to a lot of movement. She had to stretch and be given massages (lucky!) in order to help loosen up her muscles. They needed to make sure that her whole body was “connecting the dots” and could do the simple things a body is supposed to do. For example, things like following sounds and turning her head from side to side, or putting her feet down when you held her up. Simple things like that. Most parents wouldn’t think twice about noticing that kind of stuff with their baby. It was a really interesting learning experience, to say the least. I had no idea what occupational therapy was or just how important it is, especially for pre-term babies.

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Scarlett also had a speech therapist. (say whaaat!?) Yeah I know, it’s funny to think of a “newborn” needing a speech therapist – but she did. Every day an ST would also visit the unit and watch/help me feed Scarlett. Preemies basically have to play a game of “catch up” for the first couple of years of their lives. Up until now, Scarlett had no idea she was being fed, food would just magically appear in her stomach and that was all that mattered! So imagine the shock it was to her when she had to actually work in order to get food from a bottle! This is where the Speech Therapist came into play. She would watch me feed Scarlett and as I mentioned the last time when Scarlett would eat, she would stick her tongue out. This not only made it hard to get milk out of the nipple but it also wore her down pretty quickly. One of the “requirements” we had to check off the list in order to go home was to make sure that she was capable of bottle feeding. So we did some facial massages, lip stretches and we had to offer chin support during feedings. It took some time but she eventually got it down.

Speech Therapy working with Scarlett

Daddy feeding Scarlett

I’m telling you, having a preemie is seriously a lot of work. I have learned A TON about different areas of infant/child development. I knew parenting was going to be difficult and a learning experience in itself but having Scarlett is a different kind of parenthood.

While she focused on learning to bottle feed, and her lungs continued to grow there were a few other things on the list that needed to be double and tripled checked before given the a-okay to go home.

For instance, hearing and eye exams. Preemies, especially micro-preemies, are at risk for both ROP which can cause blindness and hearing loss, due not only to being born prematurely but also from needing a high amount of oxygen for a long period of time. By that point, I can’t tell you how many eye exams Scarlett had done. Only that they were very scary to watch and I hated that she had to go through yet ANOTHER traumatic event. They would dilate her eyes (which always seemed to take a long time for her) and put numbing drops in them. The ophthalmologist would then use this weird little spacer-type tool to force Scarletts eyes open (which was the hard part to watch, it looked so painful and her cries broke my heart) and examine her eyes one at a time.

As much as I hated that she had to go through that, I knew they were only doing what was best for her. Keeping a close watch on her eye development was extremely important. I know I’ve said it before, but Scarlett really and truly is a miracle. She was only diagnosed with a mild case of ROP and for her being on as much oxygen as she was, for as LONG as she was…its a miracle she has never had to have laser surgery or any other kind of treatment to correct it. (I’m not sure how rare that is but from my understanding that’s pretty amazing.) Her vision has slowly improved and even to this day, her eyes are doing really well. (We see the ophthalmologist again soon, so I will have an in-depth update for you later. I’ll talk more about it once I share our “Life After NICU” story.)

Before babies are discharged from the hospital (I’m not sure if this standard for EVERY baby, preemie or not) but Scarlett had to be given a hearing test. This was another “mile marker” for us. They usually don’t do those until just before they send you home. So I was really excited when they told me they had requested her hearing test to be done.

Unfortunately… She failed on her left side. They tested her a couple of different times and each time they had, her hearing in her left ear either didn’t pass or the results would read “halfway” but it still wasn’t a good enough result to consider it as passing. (I know that must sound confusing – but unless you are an audiologist its hard to explain.) I remember being a little worried about it. They could only test her so many times before she had to be referred to an audiologist outside of the hospital – once we go home.

Honestly, after all that, my little girl had endured… I remember thanking God for allowing her to be here with us. Despite the fact that hearing loss is a disability that would affect her life forever, it wasn’t the worse thing she could have walked away with and she would never have known any different. I told myself that if after all of this if she was deaf in one ear, it would be 100% okay. Because she is such a testament to God’s work. Look at how much she has overcome!

Relaxing in her bouncer

You would think that after ALL of the things I just shared with you that was the end of our checklist. But I am sorry to tell you that our NICU journey doesn’t end here.

Hang in there, I know it feels like it’s taking forever to get to our “happy ending” right?

Imagine LIVING through it. 😉

Chapter Eleven: Just Keep Swimming, Just Keep Swimming… Scarlett was doing so much better! She was on Nasal Cannula and that light at the end of the tunnel which seemed unreachable was finally coming into focus.

#23 Week MICROPREEMIE NICU STORY #A Preemie Story #Faith #Micro-Preemie #Mom Blog #Motherhood #NICU Life #NICU Mom #NICU Parents #NICUMiracle #Occupational Therapy #Proud Preemie Mom #Scarlett&039;s Story #Speech Therapy

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foursprout-blog · 7 years ago

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21 Tiny Stories for Those Who Have Lost Their Motivation

New Post has been published on http://foursprout.com/happiness/21-tiny-stories-for-those-who-have-lost-their-motivation/

21 Tiny Stories for Those Who Have Lost Their Motivation

This morning I didn’t feel like doing anything. It’s a combination of exhaustion from a few days of hard work and preparation for our upcoming Think Better, Live Better 2018 conference, and a lack of sleep with a sick 3-year-old in the house.

I couldn’t motivate myself to do anything important, which is a rare occurrence for me. I just felt completely drained. I started overthinking things and doubting myself, and wondering whether anything I do is worthwhile.

I sat there in this funk for nearly an hour and wondered how to snap out of it. Should I just forget about today? Should I just give up on this project in front of me, because I’m not as good at it as I thought I was?

That’s what I was considering, at least for a fleeting moment. But the better part of me knew this mild state of depression would soon pass. And just as I started to feel better, a neat bit of synchronicity arrived in my email inbox from Gina, a new course student Marc and I have been coaching over the past few days. The opening lines of her email read:

“I feel so drained, so uninspired. I’m stuck again! My mind is spinning with worry and overwhelm and just a general lack of enthusiasm. Anything you could share? What’s something small I could reflect on and try to remember when I’ve lost my motivation?”

With our student’s permission, I’m answering her inquiry publicly because I know we all need a good reminder in this area sometimes—heaven knows I needed one this morning, too.

While there are many approaches to momentary self-motivation, reflecting on and learning from other people’s stories is paramount. The right story at the right time can move us at our core. Fortunately, the nature of the work Marc and I do as personal development coaches and authors allows us to hear these kinds of stories from clients, students and readers on a daily basis. So, this morning, that’s exactly what I was reflecting on when Gina emailed me. And right now, with full permission from the original sources, I want to share powerful snippets from some of these stories with you.

What follows are super short but incredibly focused accounts of real life, real struggle, and the inner resilience of the human spirit. There’s definitely something inspiring here for all of us to think about, and tap into, when we need an extra dose of motivation:

“Today marks a full year that I’ve been eating right and working out daily. This time last year I weighed 301 pounds. When I saw my weight on the scale at the doctor’s office I knew it was time for a change. Now, after a year of exercising my will power, and using no dieting pills or gastric bands, or anything artificial, I went back to the doctor’s office for my annual check-up. “172 pounds,” my doctor said. “You know, your positive lifestyle changes just added roughly 10 years to your life expectancy.” My 11-year-old daughter, who came with me, grabbed my hand and said, “I look forward to spending those extra years with you, mommy.”

“The drummer in our local jazz band, Nick, is legally deaf, and has been since he was born. But he can still hear low bass tones and feel the vibrations from the drums and other instruments. Honestly, he’s such an incredible drummer, most people don’t believe he’s deaf. Sometimes I can’t believe it myself.”

“This morning, on my 47th birthday, I re-read the suicide letter I wrote on my 27th birthday about two minutes before my girlfriend showed up at my apartment and told me, ‘I’m pregnant.’ She was honestly the only reason I didn’t follow through with it. Suddenly I felt I had something to live for. Today she’s my wife, and we’ve been happily married for 19 years. And my daughter, who is now a 21-year-old college student, has two younger brothers. I re-read my suicide letter every year on my birthday as a reminder to be thankful—I am thankful I got a second chance at life.”

“I got my acceptance letter and full scholarship to MIT last week. Now my single mother can use the money she’s been saving diligently for the past 18 years from working three jobs, almost every single day, to give herself the better life she deserves.”

“Today, my company employs 47 intelligent, hard working individuals and turns a net profit of nearly $5 million a year. I started this company 11 years ago after I was laid off by IBM. If they hadn’t laid me off, I might still be working in a shared cubicle at IBM’s headquarters.”

“Last night, like he has numerous times over the past three years, my grandfather proposed to my grandmother who has Alzheimer’s and sometimes struggles to remember who he is.”

“At four o’clock this morning I awoke to my daughter calling my name. I was sleeping on a sofa chair in her hospital room. I opened my eyes to her beautiful smile. My daughter has been in a coma for exactly 99 days.”

“My chemo therapy is making me lose chunks of my long strawberry-blonde hair—a physical attribute I’ve always believed made me attractive. This afternoon I had a cute male nurse shave my head because my hair has become incredibly patchy. As I was tearing up because it was hard seeing the rest of my hair fall to the floor, the nurse bent down in front of me and sincerely said, ‘Gosh, you have the most beautiful eyes.’”

“It’s been exactly 15 years since I had just a few bucks to my name and could not buy my daughter pens and paper for school. A local charity stepped in and bought her school supplies and clothes. Now my daughter has graduated from Yale, started a successful business, and I work for her. And I’m donating money to that same charity to pay the kindness forward.”

“Last week I interviewed a motel housekeeper in Miami Beach for a side project I’m working on. ‘Do you like your job?’ I asked. To my surprise, she smiled from ear to ear and was breathless for a couple seconds. She finally collected herself and said, ‘I can’t believe how much I love my job! I get to make dozens of our guests happy every day and feed my two beautiful children at the same time.’”

“A 9-year-old patient of mine will be undergoing her 12th surgery in the past two years to combat a rare form of cancer. Even after all the surgeries I’ve never seen her frown. She’s still 100% sure she’ll survive. And I’m certain her attitude is the primary reason she has survived to this point. She still laughs and plays with her friends and family. She has intelligent goals for the future. A kid like her who can go through everything she’s been through and come out smiling is the reason I wake up and work hard every day.”

“I recently found an old hand-written note my 86-year-old mom wrote when she was just a junior in college. On it is a list of qualities she hoped she would someday find in man. The list is basically an exact description of my dad, whom she is still married to today, and whom she didn’t meet until she was 39.”

“I’m a struggling musician, and a bit of a loner based on my ongoing struggles with depression. I always thought my music career would take me farther than it has. After a local concert this evening, a teenage boy walked up to me, shook my hand and then hugged me. He said, ‘Thank you.’ ‘For what?’ I asked. ‘I’ve been really stressed out lately. Let’s just say I’m not one of the popular kids at school. But I have something I look forward to every day. When I get home from school, and no one is home, I put your two albums on shuffle and sing along as loud as I can,’ he said.”

“Ten years after I had six miscarriages in a row and was told I would never have kids—that my uterus was incapable of holding a baby past twelve weeks—I sat in my 8-year-old son’s bed this morning to wake him for his birthday. Just sitting there, breathing with him, and knowing that I have my very own version of miracle makes me want to make the best of whatever comes my way, every single day.”

“The homeless man who used to sleep near my condo showed up at my door this afternoon wearing the business suit I gave him over a decade ago. He said, ‘I have a clean home, a good job, and a family now. Ten years ago, I wore this business suit to all my job interviews. Thank you.’”

“Today, my 18-year-old autistic son, Kevin, played guitar and sang every single word, flawlessly, to a song he wrote for his girlfriend (who is also autistic). He did it in celebration of their two-year dating anniversary. His girlfriend’s smile lit up the room. And although my son struggles with a severe speech impediment, he has been practicing for this every single day for the past year, and it paid off beautifully.”

“Yesterday, after completing eight straight months of depression rehab at a live-in treatment center, I spent my first day out with my five-year-old daughter. We sat on my parent’s front porch all day making construction paper collages. The sight and sound of my daughter’s laughter and the simple pleasures of cutting construction paper and peeling Elmer’s glue off our hands are the best reminders I’ve had in eight months of why I’m choosing life.”

“I sat down with my two daughters, ages six and eight, this afternoon to explain to them that we have to move out of our four-bedroom house and into a two-bedroom apartment for a year or two until I can find another job and build our savings back up. It’s a conversation I’ve been avoiding for over a month, as I’ve struggled with the doubts and regrets of not being able to provide a financially stable household for us. But my daughters just looked at each other after I told them, and then my youngest daughter turned to me and asked, ‘Are we all moving into that apartment together?’ ‘Of course,’ I immediately replied. ‘Oh, so no big deal then,’ she said.”

“My dad is a blind cancer survivor. He lost both his eyes when he was in his early thirties to a rare form of cancer. Despite this, he raised my sister and I, and took care of my mom who was in and out of rehab for alcoholism and depression. My mom is a fully recovered alcoholic now, my sister and I have graduated college, and my parents are still together and back to being happy. I’m certain none of this would have been possible if my dad hadn’t been such a resilient, positive force in our lives. My dad’s inner strength literally lifted our family up in its darkest hours.”

“At 8 A.M. this morning, after nearly four months of lifelessness in her hospital bed, we took my mom off life support. And her heart continued beating on its own. And she continued breathing on her own. Then this evening, when I squeezed her hand three times, she squeezed back three times.”

“My grandpa keeps and old, candid photo on his nightstand of my grandma and him laughing together at some party in the 1970’s. My grandma passed away from a heart attack in 1999 when I was 14. This evening when I was at his house, my grandpa caught me staring at the photo. He walked up, hugged me from behind and said, ‘Remember, just because something doesn’t last forever, doesn’t mean it wasn’t worth your while.’”

Essential Daily Reminders to Think About, Too

I sincerely hope the stories above motivated you think better about your present circumstances. But, perhaps some of them also reminded you of how you’re falling short. If it’s the latter, I want you to take a deep breath.

We all need our own time to travel our own distance.

And right now, you just need to keep peaceful, productive thoughts and perspectives centered in your mind, as you take things one step at a time…

Don’t waste your energy fighting against where you are. Invest your energy into getting to where you want to go. Let go of everything from the past that does not serve you, and just be grateful it brought you to where you are now—to this new beginning.

Don’t fall back into your old patterns of living just because they’re more comfortable and easier to access. Remember, you left certain habits and situations behind for a reason: to improve your life. And right now, you can’t move forward if you keep going back.

You may not be responsible for everything that happened to you when you were younger, and you may not be responsible for everything that happened to you yesterday either, but you need to be responsible for undoing the thinking patterns these circumstances created. Blaming your past for a limiting mindset does not fix it. Change your response to what you remember.

When you look back on your past, think of the strength you gained, and appreciate how far you’ve come. It hasn’t been easy. You’ve been through a lot. But you’ve grown a lot too. Give yourself credit for your resilience, and step forward again with grace.

Too often we spend our time waiting for the ideal path to appear. But it never does. Because we forget that paths are made by walking, not waiting. Now is the time! And no, you shouldn’t feel more confident and motivated before you take the next step. Taking the next step is what builds your confidence and motivation, gradually.

Love what you do, until you can do what you love. Love where you are, until you can be where you love. Love the people you are with, until you can be with the people you love most. This is the way we find happiness, opportunity, and peace in the long run. (We discuss this in more detail in the “Happiness” chapter of our book.)

Ultimately, it’s about letting go of what you assume your life is supposed to be like right now and sincerely appreciating it for everything that it is. At the end of this day, before you close your eyes, smile and be at peace with where you’ve been and grateful for what you have. Life is good.

Your turn…

Before you go, let us know:

Which story or point above resonates the most with you right now?

Leave a comment below and share your thoughts.

Also, if you haven’t done so already, be sure to sign-up for our free newsletter to receive new articles like this in your inbox each week.

#Happiness

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patriotic-american-dude-blog · 8 years ago

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My next memory was going to visit my father at his apartment, somewhere in Los Angeles. I’m told this is shortly before he moved up north; like around October-ish of 1968. He shot himself in the chest, three times. Yes, you read that correctly. At the time, I was told that it was an ‘accident’ as he was cleaning his .22 caliber rifle. But, by the time I was a young adult, who had learned a little something about .22 rifles, I knew it wasn’t an accident. Anyhow, he had just been released from the hospital, when we went to visit him. There he was laying on the couch, of this tiny first floor apartment, when we came in. Much of the memory is hazy, except this; he asked me if I wanted to see where the doctors sewed him up. I answered affirmatively. He opened his button up shirt and there were 3 buttons stitched to his chest, lined up vertically, about 3 inches apart. Large buttons, like those on an a men’s overcoat; marbled brown. In seeing my eyes fixate on the buttons, he said, “The buttons are in case the doctor needs to get back in me. He can just unbutton me and look right in.” Yep, I remember that so well. That’s my dad’s humor; used to distract people from the things he’d rather not discuss. Hmmm...I wonder if this is from whom I got that habit myself?

My father moved to Redding, California, a short time later. My brother and I lived with our mom, in a large, 3 story apartment complex. We had a spanish speaking ‘maid’ that would look after us, while our mom was at work. I remember a Halloween or two when we lived there, so it was probably 1968-69. I say “or two,” because I remember my brother and myself in costumes, when we came across our friends, twin sisters our age, each in a leg of their father’s pants, with their heads sticking out of a single neck hole of one of his shirts. They were so cute and I loved the costume. I remember laughing so much, when we came upon them; they could barely walk in it. However, I also remember a Halloween haunted house, next to the apartment’s pool. But, my brother was not with my mom and I for that Halloween. I’m guessing I lived there for those two Halloweens and my brother had moved up to Redding to live with our dad sometime in between. I really don’t know for certain and there is no one for me to ask. I remember a number of things about that apartment complex and my time living there.

I also remember my mom working at a high-rise in downtown L.A. as well, at this time period in my life. I remember being dropped off by a yellow bus, I think some sort of daycare or nursery school thing, and then walking to the Bank of America building, where I think my mom worked on the 14th floor. I seem to remember being told it was the tallest building in Los Angeles at the time. I’m not saying that this is in fact, factual. I’m just saying I remember being told that at some point, by someone. My brother used to make that walk as well, but I don’t remember us ever doing it at the same time. I have no explanation for that. Maybe we were being shuffled back and forth between our parents at the time. Me here, him there, then switch, kind of a thing. I really don’t remember why it was that we never made that walk at the same time. I do remember a really pretty park, down below a walkway. It was mostly concrete and planter boxes, with water features; a small fountain and what l remember as streams between several very small ponds. Now that I’m typing this, while picturing it in my head, I’m thinking maybe it was some sort of downtown, 'Japanese’ style garden with Koi ponds. I guess the reason I’m sharing this is 1) it’s a pretty early memory in my childhood, and 2) I was about 3 years old at the time. I just want you to think about that. I was about 3 years old and I would walk from a some corner where I was dropped off by a yellow bus, through the downtown area of Los Angeles, to the Bank of America building, where I would enter the elevator and go up to the 14th floor, where my mom’s office was located, ALONE! Yep. I remember having to always ask someone to push the button for the 14th floor, because I couldn’t reach it. (Now, I say 14th floor, but it could have been the 12th floor or 16th floor. I just don’t remember which specific floor it was. But, I know it was above the 10th floor, for a VERY specific reason.). My mom denies that I any of that ever happened. But, I know it did. I can prove it with this story, one she can never explain away or deny, because my brother remembers this happening. He doesn’t remember it in any detail, but he remembers that it happened. My brother, during one of HIS treks from that corner to our mom’s office, decided he wanted to know the BIG RED BUTTON in the elevator did, while he was on the way up to the 14th floor (or possibly the 16th floor) one day. So, he JUMPED UP and pushed in that BIG RED BUTTON!!! Of course, this brought the elevator to a complete halt and bells started blaring loudly, “Blaaang, blaaaang, blaaaang!!!” pause, then "Blaaang, blaaang, blaaang.” My brother realized he had made a mistake and decided he needed to pull out the BIG RED BUTTON. There was a little problem though; he couldn’t reach it. He had had to JUMP to push it in and now it was out of his reach. He said he would jump and try to grab it, but could not. He tried to climb the wall with his fingers, so hard, his fingers eventually began to bleed, from wear. He cried and he sobbed for several hours. Now, the fire department had responded, but did not know what the problem was with the elevator, nor could they get it to budge by its controls. For some reason, unkown to them, it was stuck directly between the 9th and 10th floors. See, that’s how I know my mom’s office was above the tenth floor, because she had to come down the stairs from ABOVE the 10th floor to meet the firemen, who were ‘rescuing’ my brother from that mean, evil elevator. They tried calling the emergency phone, but my brother never answered. He was about 4 years old at the time and had no idea what the ringing was, nor that there was a phone behind the silver panel. He just kept screaming for help, in between sobs, while trying to climb the wall, with his bloody fingertips, to pull out the BIG RED BUTTON. Eventually, the firemen pried open the doors above and below the elevator. They used long poles of some sort and forced the elevator down enough to open the doors and remove my brother from the elevator car. Crazy story; I know. But, I remember it well. Just as I can still picture that little park I would walk above as well. I know; 3 years old and walking the streets of L.A. alone. It was definitely a different time in America.

I have another memory from this time in my life. I’m pretty sure it was before the elevator incident, because I think I was about two and a half at the time. So, this is a bit out of order. Anyhoot, I was born with very, very poor hearing. No one knew this, not even me. Apparently, I would frustrate our maid (remember I mentioned her already) and even my mom at times, by constantly turning up the TV really loud. They’d come turn it down and, apparently, I would just go over and turn it right back up, as soon as they left the room that is. I remember being hollered at, being told, “Leave that alone! It’s too loud!!” but, in spanish mostly. Didn’t I mention our maid only spoke Spanish? Well, I meant to do so. Well, complaining about this to my doctor at some point, he decided to send me for a hearing test. Yep, there was a problem. I was born with “crushed” Eustachian tubes. Or, so my memory tells me so. Those are the tubes that drain the inner ear to the throat. You know, clamp your nose and blow out through it to equalize the pressure of your ear drums? Well, that’s through the Eustachian tubes. Mine didn’t work. This explains the chronic ear infections since birth. Wait, I don’t think I mentioned that yet. Yes, I had one, long, non-stop, ear infection (in both ears) from birth until about the age of two and one half. This explain the near total deafness, but not my ability to understand what people were talking about around me. That’s the weird part to me. I remember words, phrases, people talking. But, I almost completely deaf. I have often pondered whether my memory created the words for which the situation seemed to call. But, I remember my dad saying to my brother, “Be careful climbing down, the tailpipe is hot.” And, my brother’s response, “I know.” It’s confusing to me too. Your not alone, if you feel confused about that as well. Remember, I told you I was going to share my life story, as best as I could remember. I didn’t write that I could explain everything in a crystal clear, no doubting me, kind of manner. Shoot, right now, my thoughts are, “Is all but we see or seem, but a dream within a dream.” By Edgar Allen Poe. I do wonder where our memories end and our dreams and imagination begin.

I any case, my hearing issue. I ended up in the hospital for surgery. I had my tonsils and adenoid glands removed, which was pretty common back then. They also put the standard ‘tubes’ through my ear drums and then did something to open up my Eustachian tubes. I remember it being explained to me as some sort of very small, clear plastic tubing being pushed through to hold the Eustachian tube open while it grew around the implanted tube. But, again, I was only about 30 months old, so who knows what it was. Here’s the part I remember most. I woke up in a crib!! A fucking crib? Are you kidding me? I’m not a baby. Get me out of this fucking crib!!! I remember screaming at the top of my lungs, “Get me outta this crib!!!” Repeatedly, LOUDLY!! “GET ME OUTTA THIS CRIB! I’M NOT A BABY!!” After screaming this over and over again, a nurse came in and told me to calm down and stop screaming. I told her to get me a real bed and that I’m no baby. She insisted I had to stay in a crib. She just didn’t understand the amount of tenacity I had at that age. Nope. Calm down my ass. This is a fucking crib for a fucking baby. “I AM NOT A BABY!! GET ME OUTTA THIS CRIB!!” I screamed. Again and again. After a few minutes, or a half hour (I was 30 months old. It’s not like I could tell time or even count), a doctor came in and asked what the “Commotion” was all about. I clearly explained to him that I was NOT a baby and would not be held captive in a crib, MADE FOR A BABY! He instantly understood and instructed the nurse to get me a regular hospital bed. She began to object, but he interrupted her and said, “Get him a regular bed. He’s clearly NOT a baby.” YES! Victory. A doctor acknowledged it. I am NOT a baby. She got me the bed and removed the crib from my room. She helped me up on the bed and put up the side rail, at which time I began to cry, “No, I’m not a baby. That makes it look like a crib.” Wah! I know, what a baby I was being about not being a baby. I can see the irony of it all now.

This sort of fixed my near total deafness, but I’ve always had a struggle with my hearing and ear infections, even after this surgery. But, what can I do? Spilled milk, or something like that, right?

Well, that’s it for my second installment. Hopefully, I will return tomorrow to share some more with you.

Best wishes and I hope your evening is easy to enjoy!

Eric

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