10 Ways I Found The Humor In My Hearing Loss

In fourth grade, I was diagnosed with right ear hearing loss and got my first hearing aid. Hearing loss has been a tough obstacle, but I personally believe that this ‘weakness’ has come to only make me stronger over the years.

However, in the beginning I really struggled. I was so embarrassed of my hearing loss and constantly wondered what my peers thought of me and how they would react to me having a hearing aid in my ear. Now, I wear my leopard print hearing aid (yes, leopard print!) proudly every single day and am not as afraid to slip out the “I have hearing loss”.

Hearing loss has made me the student-athlete and person I am today. I’m thankful for what my obstacle has brought me to to this day and where it will continue to bring me to each and everyday.

So I thought I’d write about my experience. Here are the very funny, but very real perks of hearing loss:

1. You don’t have to deal with super loud, super annoying snoring. Ever.

A peaceful, good night’s sleep or a nice midday nap is so hard to achieve when snoring is in the background. Luckily, by being hearing impaired, the simple solution is to lay on our good ear, and poof! “Snore-be-gone!”

2. Nothing, I mean nothing ruins your beauty sleep.

Not only can you tune out the snoring, vacuuming, talking, and barking, but even thunderstorms. Wait… what thunderstorm? Exactly. Unless you’re awake to witness it for yourself, odds are you probably didn’t hear the rumbles of thunder last night. Mother Nature never interrupts your zzz’s. AKA: SLEEPING IN FOREVER.

3. When the telemarketers call, you have your ‘out.’

Just say you’re deaf and you’ll be the last in line for them to call. No more getting consistently unwanted calls. There’s no sense for them in talking to us if we ‘can’t hear’.

4. You get to pick out your very own hearing aids.

Did I mention mine was leopard print? There are all kinds of different colors, prints, and styles of hearing aids, believe it or not. Getting a new hearing aid is something those without hearing loss don’t get to experience.

5. If someone annoying is talking to you…you can just walk away and act like you didn’t hear them.

First, it needs to be prior established to that person that they know of your hearing loss. Then, and only then, is it okay to do this. And 90% of the time they’ll just assume you didn’t hear. How awesome is it that you can get out of any awful convo whenever you need to? Pretty awesome.

6. You are extremely talented in the art of lip reading.

Well… most of the time. For me, I epically fail at this. This is probably because my source of practice is watching Bad Lip Readings on YouTube. But for most who have hearing loss, they’re skilled with this.

7. You can pull off selective hearing, and no one can prove it.

When mom or dad asks you to come do the dishes (or another unwanted task), just sit preoccupied and not phased. They’ll assume you didn’t hear them. No one can prove if you are choosing to selectively hear because there’s always that chances you actually didn’t hear something.

8. The volume of the movie at the theater isn’t too loud; it’s just right.

You have to admit, movie theaters play their movies loud. You feel the rumble of sound vibrations as the movie plays and certain scenes get louder. For us, the louder the better because we will actually be able to hear the movie crisp and clear. Aside from the rumbles of sound, going to the movies is a pretty comfortable experience.

10. You can’t hear people obnoxiously chewing gum.

…or any loud food in general. For those with pet peeves of people chewing loudly, I will say it’s fairly entertaining watching them cringe to the sound of it. For us, it is not a bother and is either very muffled sounding or completely unheard by us.