Deaf Community

I grew up in the Finger Lakes Region in Upstate NY, where a deaf community was nonexistence.

As I mentioned, I went to mainstreamed school up until college. Through out mainstreamed school years, I had a team consisting interpreters, teacher-of-the-Deaf, note takers, etc.

In my first elementary school that I attended, there had been a small deaf program which on average consisted of 12 students. I would go to the 'deaf classroom' in the mornings to practice speech therapy and correct grammar (writing). Speech and grammar are deaf people's weakness. In the afternoon, I would go to regular classroom with my regular peers. In 5th grade, I moved to another elementary school that didn't have a program like at my first school. This 2nd school was half a mile away from my home, and I had decided to move there to find more friends in the home neighborhood. It was a challenging time making friends but I found great ones. In elementary schools, kids are more motivated to learn sign language. Also the new school had more friendly kids and staff. That school was very excellent, and I always hold fond memories of my time there. It helped me to form in the strong person that I am to this day because of the challenges I faced, and having a support system at the school (as well the family).

I went on to middle school and high school, of course gaining several different friends over the years. Those years were more difficult. I had went to the deaf institutes in Rochester, NY and White Plains, NY during middle school years to consider transferring there among deaf peers. I recall visiting classrooms with several of deaf students and participated like I was already a student there. This occurred in 2001, at that time, what I noticed at both schools that their education level had been off track from where I was in my mainstreamed school. For example, I went there in 7th grade, and things they were being educated about were things I already learned in 5th grade. Determined to stay in mainstreamed school instead of being with my own kind of peers was a tough decision. Another downside to attending deaf institutes would be going away from my home/family which I have a close bond with. The deaf institute is like a boarding school, how it would work is that I would leave Monday AM (2-3 hours away for both schools) and reside in the dorms during the week. Home on Friday PM. That would take away a lot of time from the family and I would definitely have missed out on a lot things that were occurring in my home area with family, friends, etc.

The last two years in high school was horrible. I rushed those years without entirely enjoying the time to graduation. I probably was the only happy person at graduation to leave high school. I lost motivation in last 2 years with putting in the effort with the hearing peers. A lot discourage led me to give up and I was not socializing anymore. All I was thinking about is to get out of that place. I was looking forward to attending a college with mixed deaf/hearing community. I loved that about RIT that it had both worlds - with one world (hearing) that I am already familiar of. I went to camp at RIT in the summer before my senior year in high school, which got myself first batch of deaf friends that I stayed in contact with via computer.

And... finally arrived to college on August 19, 2007. That will be another whole blog to write.