Voices
where it was coming from.
To help this, I got a hearing aid.
It converts the sounds that I can
no longer hear into lower pitched
sound that I can hear. With the
hearing aid, my hearing is almost
back to normal! It makes school
and group conversations easier.
This may sound like a story
asking for pity or even a diary
entry, but it is not. It is, however, a story about how we all face
challenges in our lives, big or
small, and how we can make the
best of them.
My friends, teachers, and even
complete strangers ask me questions about hearing loss all the
time. I never get offended because
I know that this is even newer to
them than it is to me.
Finally, I can answer from my
own perspective. At some point,
everyone will face a challenge,
or many challenges, in his or
her life. Whether it is hearing
loss, a fear of public speaking or
even the tendency to be disorganized, life throws things at all of
us that no one expects. What I
have learned from this particular
situation is that when things are
thrown at us, there is something
good that can come out of everything. It has given me an op-
LEAH
KASHAR
HUFFINGTON
03.03.13
portunity to teach people about
something new to them, and it
has taught me about the meaning
of hearing. It is really not about
what you can physically hear, it
is about what you can take from
everything that you listen to.
So, what can you take from
this? Everyone faces obstacles.
Consonants,
women’s voices and group
conversations became hard
to hear and understand.
I could no longer tell where
a sound was coming from.”
It may seem like the end of the
world at first, but in the end, it
can teach you something about
yourself. You can also teach others something valuable about the
world around them.
Everyone has a story, but it
is what we do with our stories,
what we learn from our stories
and how we impact lives of others that will end up
making the difference.
Kashar is on her school’s speech
and debate team and is fluent in
American Sign Language.