Expectations Surpassed

Fourteen years ago, the journey began.

My mom listened in a daze as the audiologist threw around words like "decibels" and "audiogram". The audiologist pointed to a graph with scribbled X's and O's. She placed her finger on the line marked zero. "This is the level that most children hear at," she said, and then dragged her finger down to the line that said seventy, "this is the level your daughter hears at."

My mom did not understand.

"Wow," my mom thought to herself, "look how good her hearing is!"

The woman continued. She spoke of hearing aids, of me never speaking 'normally' and never attending a typical school, let alone perform at the same level as my hearing peers. That was a word she seemed to like, the word "never". That, along with "can't" and "won't"

In tears, my mother dragged me out of the doctor's office, vowing to never return to a place that told her what her daughter was incapable of achieving.

Me (right) with my older sister back in the day

Last week, I woke up at four in the morning to see how I performed on the SAT. My body filled with a mixture of dread and excitement when I saw the words "Your scores are available!" on the screen.

I clicked on it, and I saw this:

The score for each section is in the center column. A perfect score on a section is an 800. You add the scores up for the composite score, which is out of 2400.

I got a 2260, as you can see. I'm not sure if I screamed. I certainly let out a gasp. I know scores don't mean everything, but it's nice to have cold hard proof that I can point to and say, "You could not have been more wrong about me."

Just to put it in perspective:

• The national average score on the SAT is a 1500. (Source)
• The average SAT score for Harvard falls in the range of 2070-2350. (Source)

Yes, I am deaf- deaf to those who doubt me! And with that, I ask you not ever let a so-called expert control your future.