Has it really been two months?

Well, my NCAA March Madness bracket is failing horribly...and it's only the first day of the first round. So, I'm turning my attention to something more worthwhile, and that is updating this blog which has fallen by the wayside lately. Truth be told, there is so much to be said about my implant that I just have not been able to sit down and take all the time to say everything I want to say about it...so at least I have some free time now and we'll see what happens!

Over Christmas, I got a brand new iPod. Before receiving my implant, I looked upon people who owned mp3 players with absolute envy. I have never been a big fan of headphones, because the ear mold of my hearing aid prevents me from using the better, in the ear headphones. Also, the microphones on my hearing aid are located behind the ear, so the way I have to wear headphones to hear the sound looks rather akward. The pain and trouble of wearing headphones just was not worth it to me...until I got my implant. On the back of my implant, there is an audio cable connection that allows me to connect a personal audio cable to certain devices such as TVs, radios, cell phones and yes...iPods. This means I can plug my audio cable directly from my iPod to my implant without sacrificing much in the way of sound quality or loss of sound due to outside noises. I love uploading songs and videos to my iPod, and I wear it a LOT these days. It has really enhanced my ability to listen to music and hear it better!

Our Spring Break is this following week. While it is not necessarily spring yet, there are certainly signs that spring is on the way here at Clemson. The fountains have been turned back on at the reflecting pool (signifying that the air conditioning is back on, since the fountains serve as the cooling unit for the campus AC), some trees have already begun blooming, and a few flowers have even begun adding a little bit of color to the campus. But, for me, the most pleasant surprise has been hearing the birds singing. This is my first spring with the implant, and I have never had the luxury of hearing the high pitched calls of birds before. Yesterday, I even heard a bird in the air above me and I was able to localize and find the bird that was making the noise. That was pretty cool.

I gave an informational speech yesterday for my Comm 250 class on how cochlear implants work. As far as speeches go, I felt like it went very well. I was surprised at the number of people who actually seemed to enjoy the speech because many of the people in my class had questions to ask once I was done. They seemed genuinely interested to know more about implants and hearing aids, which is always encouraging. It is so comforting to meet someone new and for them to say "I know someone who wears an implant," because then that barrier has already been crossed. That was part of my motivation in giving the speech the other day. I told the group the other day that I hope they will never hesitate to let a person with an implant know that they are familiar with what implants are and how they work. It really does make a world of difference in making a person feel at ease if you go up to them and say, I know someone who has that same issue.

The last thing of interest you might want to hear about is the decision I made involving my classes this semester. In case you did not read about this in my last post two months ago...after a 'break-in' period last semester with the implant, I decided to really use the implant to my advantage this semester in my classes. Rather than request captioning for all of my classes this semester, I chose to do without captioning in all but one class. Rather than develop a reliance on other non-traditional methods of hearing (like captioning), I felt it was time for me to regain valuable and critical listening skills. With captioning in class, it is too easy to just zone out for awhile or completely ignore what a teacher has to say. In doing so, I do not gain any benefit of 'practicing' my listening skills...of developing critical real world skills of hearing what a teacher has to say, remembering and then processing that information in the brain while continuing to listen. It's a complex process and one that many of us take for granted. I don't want to graduate from college and head out into the real world, only to learn that I no longer have all the same resources available and that I am completely on my own when it comes to being able to hear and process information.

With that said, so far I have been very successful in my classes. I am more proactive in staying on top of things, such as readings on the lecture for the next day. I am learning to be aware of where I sit in class and how to choose a seating location that maximizes my ability to hear the teacher AND the rest of the class. I am learning how to work with others (teachers included) to make sure that I am not missing anything. While there are times that I miss what is being said in class, overall, I am doing very well and I am very pleased with my success so far!

That's about all I have for now. My bracket has failed me yet again as I wrote this post...so I'm off to wonder what the heck I was thinking when I filled out my bracket in the first place. At least the Tigers are still in the NIT and should be playing next week against Louisville.

Finally, I will be in D'Iberville, Mississippi (just north of Biloxi) over the course of the next week on a mission trip with Presbyterian Student Association. If you want to know where I am, just picture me on a roof somewhere in Southern Mississippi and you'll have a pretty accurate idea of where I am! Pray for a safe trip and good times!

Go Tigers!