Listen to Me

My entire life has been an absolute bore. People look at me as if I'm a baby and I can't do anything by myself - I can't cross the street or go to public school or be left home alone. I know I can't hear anything, but I can still see and feel. I've snuck out to go to parties (even though they were lame suburban parties), and I was fine when I stayed at my aunt's house and no one was home all day, and I've even crossed the street without holding anyone's hand. I'm a total bad-ass. I've survived this long without any trouble, and yet my parents still treat me like a baby.

I can still have fun, you know. Every once in a while, my cousin and best friend Jon and I wrestle or play soccer. He'll invite me to hang out with his friends, or we'll go for a ride just because. Jon doesn't treat me like a child - he knows what I can and cannot do, which is good because I still haven't accepted my limits.

I'm extremely thankful to have Jon by my side now more than ever. Even though my parents protested - like a lot - I will be attending Dakrem University with him really soon. It's a college - with people! People with different backgrounds and strengths and weaknesses, and hopefully great patience and acceptance too. I just want to live a semi-normal life. Is that so wrong?

I've been home-schooled my entire life. When I was young, my parents would try to introduce me to the neighborhood kids, but they only alienated me when they realized I couldn't hear. Even if they didn't think I was weird, being deaf made it extremely hard to play games with other kids.

I've been around other kids before but they weren't friendly, and I've been around Jon and Ashley's friends, but they didn't bother getting to know me - they don't know sign language and they must not know that I can somewhat read lips. They say bad things about me. Jon would step in and tell them off from what I could tell, but still... those are his friends. I need more friends of my own. Friends who will understand me, bother to look past my disability and try to get to know me. I really hope I'll find that at Dakrem, but that might be asking a lot of my new school.