Why I Need to Do This

My aunt is the one who got me started. Noah was my first experience with signing. Kyle is my inspiration. Now, I hope I can work at RESA and hone in on my ASL skills.

My Aunt Sandi is fluent in American Sign Language. She uses it in her classroom of first graders with special needs. She was meant to be Noah's mother. Noah has Down's Syndrome, and uses sign language occasionally to get his point across. I practiced signing with him when he was a little baby, asking for milk or juice or Mama. Although he communicates quite well now, Noah still sometimes needs sign language to clarify what he wants, or to understand what he needs to do. I guess, because of him, I started learning ASL at the age of about seven or eight.

Kyle was one of my good friends. He was the first deaf preson I ever came across, and he accepted me and my Tourette's in a way no one else could. We had a curious friendship, figuring out what the other would do next.

And then he died. Killed in a car wreck in the early hours of what should have been a beautiful May morning. He was 18 years old.
I still cry. Usually when I'm by myself, because when I'm alone, that's when I try and feel him around me, and I realize that he's not here anymore. I miss him.
My signing is almost all gone now, because there hasn't been anybody to sign with. I'm pretty rusty, and I need someone to get me up to speed. I hope I can find that at RESA.

I have to have sign language in my life, so I can hang on to the friend that should still be here, joking and smiling and playing soccer. I need to do this, so I can become a psychologist who offers services to the deaf. There aren't a lot of those around, you know. Maybe I can be the first.
That's why I need to do this.