The single most asked question I get is, “how come you don’t know sign language?” Here’s why. My biggest goal is to be an advocate for the hearing loss community, but with that is recognizing that I represent the lower case d deaf community - one that relies on verbal communication, not sign language. I have nothing but the utmost respect for the capital D Deaf community and would love to learn sign language one day as a second language but hopefully this can give some insight into why I wouldn’t rely on it as much as one would think. One last tidbit that my sister pointed out that I though was an ironic but interesting point: most of the people that ask why I don’t know sign language are hearing individuals... which further shows WHY I am striving to advocate and educate on the topic of cochlear implants and verbal communication. Hearing loss is not the black and white landscape it used to be. Cochlear implants have changed the scope of hearing loss so much but it’s also a relatively new concept as well so there’s so much to learn! I hope that this can shed some light and happy to try and answer any more questions ☺️🫶🏼