Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
My name is Sophie Kaye.
Until I was 7 years old, my life was filled with the
sights and sounds of the city where I grew up-New York.
Then one morning, 10 years ago, without warning,
I woke up to find that I could no longer hear
many of life's everyday sounds.
I'm here today to tell you how my life was forever changed by
losing my hearing and why it's so important
for you to protect yours.
To this day, not even my doctors know
how this happened to me.
All we know is that overnight I lost basically all of my
hearing in my left ear and partial hearing in my right ear.
The majority of hair cells in my left ear died.
My hearing in my left ear now begins at around 95 decibels
while my right ear begins at around 35 decibels.
Most people are able to hear noises that are as soft as
zero decibels, sometimes even -15 decibels,
so I've really lost the vast majority of my hearing.
All the time people are asking me,
"What does the world sound like to you?"
But I think that the more realistic question is
what the world doesn't sound like to me.
It's very different, and I've learned that many sounds
are continually ignored or taken for granted by people who
possess all of their hearing.
You really don't realize all of life's sounds until they are
no longer discernible or until they disappear altogether.
And that's really taught me to listen, to adjust,
to read lips, and to be more observant and just to be
more aware of everything around me.
The months following my sudden loss of hearing turned out to be
filled with dozens of repetitive and predictable doctor's visits,
normally involving blood tests,
hearing tests, CT scans, MRIs, and even sometimes
participation in genetic studies.
It just-it was very, very tiring.
It was difficult to understand how my life could change
so drastically, so suddenly.
A part of me had been lost.
My self-confidence was completely shaken.
I was now viewed as being different.
I was teased, I was mocked,
I could no longer hear my friend whispering to me.
People who didn't know me personally sometimes even
perceived me to be ungracious and obnoxious
because they thought I was just ignoring them,
when in reality, I just couldn't hear them.
All of my teachers had to wear special microphones that
transmitted their voices to a small hearing device
that was placed on my desk.
But in addition to these changes in school,
I was greatly affected outside of school, as well.
It became difficult to watch TV or movies at home
with my family and friends.
What was too loud for them was just much too soft for me.
It also impacted other aspects of my life.
For example, I could no longer hear noises coming from
behind me, so little things like riding a bike or even
crossing a street by myself
became dangerous activities for me.
And also I now have to deal with
ringing in my ears, periodically.
I sometimes get sharp pains.
There's just-there's nothing I can do about these
little things that are really having very big impacts.
There are a lot of loud noises in this world and that's why
people my age should take steps to protect their hearing.
Most people don't know how much their hearing matters
until it begins to disappear.
I'm a prime example of this.
Taking precautionary steps by prioritizing the protection of
your hearing is very simple and highly effective.
The younger you are when you take this initiative, the less
likely you are to develop permanent damage in the future.
Not all hearing loss occurs randomly as mine did.
Much hearing loss is gradual and thus goes unnoticed or ignored.
As kids and teenagers continue to expose themselves
to a variety of loud noises every single day,
they are slowly-or in some cases quickly-damaging
the hair cells in their ears.
For example, going to concerts or even going to sporting events
-all of those things involve exposure to loud noises,
which damages your hair cells.
And without functioning hair cells, people cannot hear.
Imagine not hearing your friends speak to you
as they stand just a mere 10 feet away from you.
Imagine not being able to read their lips-well,
actually, not being able to understand them without
reading their lips in order to understand
what they are trying to say.
Imagine not hearing a fire truck that is racing down
the street and heading right towards you.
Imagine life without birds chirping.
Just try and imagine life without sound.
It's very, very difficult.
But thankfully, you have the power to prevent that,
and you have the power to prevent permanent
noise-induced hearing loss.
Since I do have some hearing left,
I do everything I possibly can to protect it.
I've developed an organization called Sophie SoundCheck to
help raise awareness of the dangers that contribute to
noise-induced hearing loss.
If people are more aware of the ways that they can
protect their hearing, then their hearing and thus,
their lives, will be greatly impacted.
For example, I'll tell you, which is the same thing
I tell my friends, when you listen to music,
turn the volume to a low setting.
When you attend concerts and sporting events, wear earplugs.
And also get periodic hearing tests to monitor
your level of hearing.
I want to raise awareness that hearing loss is
a very, very harsh reality.
We need to take small steps in our own lives to preserve
our hearing before we lose it.
It happened to me and I don't want it to happen to you.
I was unlucky and lost much of my hearing at only 7 years old.
You, however-you have the knowledge, the time, and
the power to prevent the same thing from happening to you.