A Silent Hangout
A Silent Hangout: An Afternoon with Edward
23 April, 2022Edward Wong, a high achieving deaf person that proves that they can do anything beside hearing.
"I'm normally a chatty person," I said.
Yet, we communicated solely via texting, intense texting, with an app called Cardzilla which is recommended.
With limited time we had, he shared his obstacles in life being a deaf person in Malaysia, such as how getting admission to local universities is harder than normal people getting into Harvard.
Yet he's a bright, optimistic, successful college student in IT field.
I counterintuitively asked, "what's the most fun thing about being deaf?"
He replied, "I can sleep very well." Having sleeping issues (I must sleep in silence), he later explained he tried sleeping with hearing aids, he thought it's too “noisy”.
I agreed and concluded: our world is too noisy.
While "texting", I noticed the couple, even many customers in the restaurant are "texting" a lot too.
I agreed and concluded: our world is too noisy.
This got me thinking: we are on our phones so that we could simply connect, and talk to each other.
Yet, they are on their phones to separate from each other; to disconnect; to reduce boredom; to ignore the people who are presently there.
We all do that all the time. I reply WhatsApp messages while hanging out with friend; you post photos and videos on IG stories.
If there's one thing to bring to your attention here is probably: be present.
Make it two: be aware of deaf community. Support them. Show love. Show openness. Advocate. Help.
We all as a part of community, I think, ignorance means not supporting, and that brings discrimination. Maybe you just don't know. But, many things happen when you don't know. When you know it, at least you have power; can change the course of nature of things to something positive.
And it takes all of us to make this change. Be the change.
A hangout with Edward in a cozy afternoon.