Right around the age of 10 something happened inside my ears and suddenly I could hear – perfectly.

The morning I woke up with perfect hearing I could hear the padding of footsteps on the floor and voices and small sounds of movement from other rooms.

I, loudly, (or so it seemed to me at the time) announced to all the new status of my hearing by saying “Why is everything so loud?”

The doctors had no real clue as to why or how my hearing had improved so dramatically. They told my parents that there must have been some form of blockage that had cleared itself. It wasn’t a good answer then any more than it would be today.

But I could really hear everything I’d been missing! The nuances of everyday background sounds that most take for granted I had never before experienced. Birds singing, the whispering sound of a soft breeze, the gurgle of a meandering stream, a seemingly never ending myriad of brand new sounds. It was astonishing to me and I know for weeks and weeks after I would go on and on about the many and varied “new” sounds I was hearing before I actually began to become accustomed to the differences.

I could also hear the way I sounded when I would talk. It didn’t take me long to figure out that much of the fun being made towards me at my expense by my fellow students was caused by the manner in which I spoke. It took even less time for me to correct this.

…To be continued!