| My History Before I write too much about the past let's be radical and talk about the present. My name is Michael Harrison and I live in Sydney, Australia with my beautiful wife of two years, Jackie.
I am currently working at GN Resound as a hearing aid mould machinist/technician.
Now, the past.
Was born on 28th April 1978 into a family of three girls in Sydney. Apparently had normal hearing at that stage and was only detected as having a hearing loss at age 5 due to the school nurse's suspicions.
Was fitted with hearing aids in both ears in 1st grade and spent much of my time not wearing them.
Had a fairly normal school life at:
At age 11, I was lucky enough to be offered the chance to learn a musical instrument, so I chose the guitar.
Weekly lessons and numerous opportunities to play during church activities saw me gradually take music seriously, especially in senior years of high school when invited to join the school's Stage Band.
Much of my music experiences were in a church environment and by the age of 18 was a musical director of a small church band.
After taking a year from studies following my HSC year in 1995, I moved to Lismore on the far north coast of NSW to commence studies for a Bachelor's Degree in Contemporary Music, majoring in Composition.
During the three best years of my life (so far) I was lucky enough to meet a nice girl (now my wife) and also held leadership positions in the music team of Alstonville Baptist church.
Graduating in 1999, I moved back to Sydney, although not for long as my lady was still in Lismore! After 7 months moved back to Lismore for 3 months and then onto Brisbane for 14 months, where we initially settled after getting married Easter weekend 2001.
Due to lack of work options we moved back to Sydney as a couple in Jan 2002. We also made the move to be closer to my family and support network in order to commence the cochlear implant process.
First appointment was with Prof. Gibson in March 2002 and over the following 9 months went to all of the tests and appointments and now here we are!!!
Many people ask me if I have much to do with music these days. Not really. I hope that one day I might hear sufficiently to pick it up again. While it is not a goal that I have in respect to the implant, I really would like to pick it back up again. However my main focus is on being able to communicate with those that I come into contact with everyday. To have a 'stress free' conversation would be a good starting goal for me.
To view some of my many audiograms (hearing tests) click here
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