12 Month Switch-On Anniversary

March 12th 2004

With my anniversary coming up and a fairly large amount to report, thought it would be best to give an update for all of those out there that look at these pages frequently.

It has been a long (at times) 12 months!!! At other times it has flown by. But here I am being able to reflect on twelve months as a cochlear implant recipient.

But first I want to share a rather funny experience that I have had at university (more on that in a minute).

In our course we have a large number of Canadian exchange students and from time to time I find myself talking to any number of them. During a conversation I was having a little trouble with the Canadian accent on one of the girls and I quipped that I should have purchased the Canadian Accent program when I had the implant. Her response was quite honest - "Do they just load new software in or something?" She had no idea........

Anyway, as I have mentioned I am now at uni full time at Wollongong Uni studying to become a School teacher. I will (due to Dept of Education protocol) initially be qualified to teach secondary (high school) music, but hope to eventually move into the special education field, maybe as a teacher of the hearing impaired or something similar - we'll see what happens.

I am actually writing this on the train as I head home. I am so blessed to be able to flick a switch and turn down that little screaming kid a few rows away!!

Apart from the timetable being quite busy and the workload high, I think I am doing well in it. So far I have had nothing but positive comments from my peers (260 people in course) and many words of encouragement. A few here and there think I am taking the piss out of them well I tell them I am studying music, but they work it out in the end......... I think.

Being able to follow most of the lecture material via hearing is quite a thrill, though getting to lectures early and getting a 'dress circle' seat (front row) can be a task as at the moment there are more students than seats in some of the theatres!! But once it is all happening, I have been quite thrilled to be able to hear what is going on. Having said that, the sound of 259 people shuffling papers is one that I will never get used to or enjoy - kind of like a plastic bag to me.

I am actually being sent to a school for four weeks to observe/teach the week after next which is kinda daunting as we really have only had three full weeks of lectures. I guess they figure that by throwing us in the deep end we are more likely to learn to swim, so to speak.

While there are still times (mainly in regards to noise in background) that I have trouble understanding, I feel quite privileged to be a part of the hearing world and being able to listen to other's stories especially given the tremendous diversity of people in our course alone.

As I am on a train at the moment (and not moving very far) thought it would be appropriate to inform you that my current pet hate is train timetable writers who schedule an all stations train prior to an express train and leaving only 2 mins in between departure times.