Beyond Normal: A Candle or a Laser Beam

Sometimes, I catch myself comparing. 

I look at people around me, the ones who hear without even thinking about it. They were born with sound. They wake up in the morning and the world already speaks to them.

And then I look at myself.

My hearing didn’t come easily. It wasn’t a gift handed to me at birth. It was something I had to fight for, with surgeries, therapy, practice, mistakes, and countless moments of doubt.

There were days when I asked, Why me? Why can’t I just be “normal”?

But over time, I realized something important: comparing myself to someone who was born with hearing is like comparing a candle to a laser beam.

A candle burns because it was meant to. A laser beam shines because it was engineered to cut through the dark with incredible power. Both give light, but in very different ways.

That’s how I see myself now.

Not as “less than normal.” Not as someone always trying to catch up. But as someone whose journey created a different kind of strength, one that only comes from struggle.

Every sound I hear carries a story. Every word I understand is proof of persistence. Every step I take reminds me that hearing wasn’t automatic for me, it was earned.

 

So if you’re like me, if you’ve ever doubted yourself, compared yourself, or felt less, remember this:

You’re not behind.

You’re not incomplete.

You’re beyond normal.

Because while others were handed sound, you built it.

And that makes you shine differently like a laser in a world full of candles.