It's been a great semester of both good and hard times with basically starting over leaving high school behind, making new friends, living on my own with a roommate, starting a new job (with fancy paychecks!), and keeping up with all my classes... but most of all, just having fun as a college student! :)
When I first enrolled to Berry, I was given several options because of my hearing:
- Option One: Private room
- Option Two: Note-taker, FM system, etc. to help me in classes (like the 504 plan in high school?)
- Option Three: Fire alarm with a blinking light
But I didn't take the first two... just Option Three for safety reasons.
Option One Explanation:
One of the main challenges about college is learning how to live and deal with a roommate. I wanted to experience college to the fullest, so I decided to try it out with a roommate and see how it goes - just so I can say I've tried it.
It was weird and kind of nerve-wrecking at first. I wasn’t sure what it was going to be like having to share a room with a girl I didn’t even know. I was also nervous about at night when I take my hearing equipment off. I wasn't sure if I was going to be missing out on stuff or if my roomie would have people in the room or would be going through my stuff while I'm asleep and unaware. And the thought of that kind of freaked me out.
But then as the year went on, living with a roommate is like living with a sister I never had, which had both its good and bad times. haha And about the night time worries… that’s basically a trust issue. I just learned to trust my roommate and set some ground rules in the “roommate contract” that everyone had to do in the beginning of the year, to make sure that we don’t have guest hanging out in the room once one of us is asleep.
But I gotta say, it’s definitely been interesting living in a hearing/deaf roommate situation. As it turns out, she loves having the deaf roommate because it gives her a lot more advantages than me like not having to be quiet when I'm asleep. But I, on the other hand, had to learn how to be SUPER quiet in the morning so I don't wake her up.
We also had a challenge in the beginning with my alarm clock because she could hear it vibrate. Thank goodness I don't have to use the flashing light or the loud noise to wake me up! :P
But even though we had a few challenges, we learned to accept and overcome them.
Option Two Explanation:
I took about 5 classes this semester, and I didn’t use a note-taker or an FM system to help me in any of them. In fact I don’t think my professors even knew about my hearing… if they did, it’s because they either figured it out or someone else told them. In High School I just told my teachers that I was deaf, but they all forgot after a month of having me in their class so I figured I wasn’t going to really worry about it here unless it became a problem.
So I just made sure I sat in the first or second row to where I can hear my professor and to be able to see the board or PowerPoint presentation for notes. And honestly, I didn’t really have a problem with any of them.
So yeah, I guess you can say those would be two obstacles a deaf person would normally face in college… but luckily for me, I did just fine this semester!
Here are some pictures of some of the highlights of this semester…
Freshman Service Day - Some girls and I got grouped together to clean and organize a storage room for a Teen Center. We found these baby dolls so we were having fun with them haha
Giving Blood for the first time! :)
Mountain Day Weekend at Berry - each residence hall had a different theme, and ours was the "InCLARAbles" :D
A "Mock-Cocktail Party" for the girls on our hall
Halloween Dance
Lighting the street with candles for all the Alumni driving in for an Alumni party:
So as you can see.... it's only been one semester and I already have tons of great memories!!
I love College!! :)
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