MY SUPPORTS

I feel quite fortunate, as my daily environment is full of support, emotional, practical and physical. First, I have a very supportive family, both immediate and extended, who provide emotional support through unconditional love, acceptance, and understanding. This has been especially evident recently, as they have been both accepting and supporting of my internship, which has caused us to live thousands of miles apart. My immediate family also provides practical support, as we work together to maintain the house, and complete house chores. I am also very fortunate to have a supportive work environment and supportive friends, who offer any support I should need. The people in my life who provide emotional support are most important, and life without the emotional support would make life empty.

Physical support from people is not something I require much of in either my home life or my work life, but I am hearing impaired and rely heavily on my hearing aids. My hearing aids offer physical support that allows me to hear, which in turn allows me to complete tasks. Additionally, as I am away from my family, and hearing impaired, I rely heavily on texting and email to communicate, and receive support from both my cell phone and computer. While I could survive without both, I believe we all rely on objects and tools to support everyday life, such as mops, pens, computers, phones, etc., and those things make life more functional.

As a hearing-impaired person, it is easy for me to sympathize with and imagine the hardships faced by someone who faces a challenge. Because I rely so heavily on my sight, I would imagine being blind would require substantial support, including materials, training, and assistance to be able to function and participate without injury to one’s self. Adaptations would need to be made to everyday objects so that sound or feeling would allow operation rather than visual cues, adaptations and accommodations would need to be made to living and working areas and emotional support from family and friends would be essential. I believe it would be quite difficult to function in a world where most things depend on site, without the aid of supports.