don’t know the real statistics, but I can say with my soul on my hand that everyone inthe world has experienced through unique and specific challenges. Like a snowflake, no twochallenges are alike. Whether or not if everyone has overcome these yet, doing so will make youstronger in every way. My challenge has always been with me my whole life, it is even still withme today. But I squashed that as it were some little bug that was in my way. Hearing loss is apart of my life forever, whether IT likes it or not.In my humble home in the suburbs of Santa Elena, El Salvador, I was living life as anormal little boy in that area. However, there was something quite different about me, myhearing loss. My parents always say that I lost almost half of
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So many days of the school year I feel like I donot want to wear them, because I didn’t want to feel different. When I wore them during school,I felt singled out. It appeared like robots lived in my ears and people were at the very least,shocked, to see them.It was in the 7th grade where my hearing issue really took its toll on me. As I said before,those who saw me wearing the hearing aids always looked at my ears in a confused yet curioustype of way. And I don’t blame them. If I saw hearing aids for the first time on someone, I wouldgaze into their direction and try to study them from afar. Anyways,throughout most of mychildhood I attended public schools. And there was finally a kid who ridiculed me for wearingthem. I knew the bullying had to be coming, but I didn’t handle it well. My mom found out,lashed out at the school and bully, and decided to send me to All Saints Catholic school for 8thgrade. It was there where I started to accept myself as “normal.” Sure, it’s not like anyone in myclass over there had hearing loss, but it felt like I was the same as them. That was a veryrelieving feeling. Of course, I attended St. Thomas Aquinas High School, and while it definitelyhad more of a public school vibe than my 8th grade class, I completely accepted myself asanother bright kid with big aspirations. Religion classes have emphasized the phrase that “we areall created in God’s image,” and that really just delved deep into my brain as my everydaymantra.I’ve learned not to let my disability single me out from the rest of the crowd in a negativeway. As my mama always told me, I am Rene Padilla, and I am different in my own good
So many days of the school year I feel like I donot want to wear them, because I didn’t want to feel different. When I wore them during school,I felt singled out. It appeared like robots lived in my ears and people were at the very least,shocked, to see them.It was in the 7th grade where my hearing issue really took its toll on me. As I said before,those who saw me wearing the hearing aids always looked at my ears in a confused yet curioustype of way. And I don’t blame them. If I saw hearing aids for the first time on someone, I wouldgaze into their direction and try to study them from afar. Anyways,throughout most of mychildhood I attended public schools. And there was finally a kid who ridiculed me for wearingthem. I knew the bullying had to be coming, but I didn’t handle it well. My mom found out,lashed out at the school and bully, and decided to send me to All Saints Catholic school for 8thgrade. It was there where I started to accept myself as “normal.” Sure, it’s not like anyone in myclass over there had hearing loss, but it felt like I was the same as them. That was a veryrelieving feeling. Of course, I attended St. Thomas Aquinas High School, and while it definitelyhad more of a public school vibe than my 8th grade class, I completely accepted myself asanother bright kid with big aspirations. Religion classes have emphasized the phrase that “we areall created in God’s image,” and that really just delved deep into my brain as my everydaymantra.I’ve learned not to let my disability single me out from the rest of the crowd in a negativeway. As my mama always told me, I am Rene Padilla, and I am different in my own good