🎧 From Hiding to Healing: The Day I Wore My Device Like Jewelry

There was a time in my life when mirrors made me anxious.
I would stare at my reflection, tilt my head side to side, and ask myself the same silent question over and over again:

“Why can’t I just look… normal?”

My sound processor sat behind my ear like a badge I never asked for. It was big, visible, and impossible to hide. It was a part of me, yet I wanted to make it disappear.

So, I tried everything.

I changed my hairstyles.
I cut my hair short.
I even draped shawls over my head when I went out. Not because I was cold, but because I was scared.
Scared of the stares.
Scared of the whispers.
Scared of the questions.

And the questions came like clockwork.

“Is that a Bluetooth device?”
“Are you listening to music?”
“Wait… what’s that thing on your ear?”

Every outing felt like a performance I didn’t audition for. I wasn’t tired of wearing my device. I was tired of explaining it. Tired of shrinking myself. Tired of feeling like I had to justify my existence.

Then one day, it all became too much.

I came home, dropped my bag, and broke down.
The kind of cry that comes from somewhere deep, where shame and exhaustion meet.
I sat there, hiding my face, when my mom gently came and sat beside me.

She didn’t say much. Just one sentence:

“You know how some people wear glasses to see? You wear your device to hear. There’s nothing wrong with that, my little one.”

That was it.
Just that.
But those simple words wrapped around my heart like a warm hug I didn’t know I needed.

And something inside me began to shift.

That night, I looked at myself again in the mirror. Same device, same reflection. But this time, with different eyes.

I didn’t see something to hide anymore.
I saw something that helped me hear.
I saw strength. I saw me.

From that day forward, I stopped hiding.
I started wearing my processor proudly. Like a hairpin. Like an accessory. Like a piece of jewelry.

Something that added to who I was, not something that took away.

💡 Because when we think positively, we stop shrinking.
We stop apologizing for the space we take up.
We begin to bloom.

And the world, even with all its noise and misunderstandings, becomes lighter… and unexpectedly beautiful.

✨ Have you ever hidden a part of yourself until one moment changed everything?
Share your story. You never know who might need to hear it.

#DeafAwareness #CochlearImplant #SelfAcceptance #DisabilityInclusion #HealingJourney #ThisIsMe #ThinkPositive