TL;DR: I am an American Sign Language (ASL) interpreter. This was probably the silliest career choice for me, because I love playing video games (like League!) and with video games come issues with the hand flexibility like carpal tunnel. But, I have always had a fascination with languages, and when I was young ASL interested me because the concept of being able to communicate with my friends without making noise was a fascinating concept. Problem was, none of them knew or wanted to learn ASL, and by the time I graduated high school, I knew enough to make it into my career. No one ever really knows what they want to do for their career at that age, and while interpreting isn't my passion, it did prevent me from wading through college trying to settle on what degree I should seek, with that degree netting me a luxurious career as a bus boy making minimum wage. So, even if the job isn't my life's purpose, it is very lucrative and I'm fortunate at how things turned out for me :)
The very first career I ever looked into, I was 12 (and very clever for my age) and that career was drumroooooooooolllllllllllll Being a licensed Veterinarian! Yep.
I've always been very naturally good with animals and still am. I have surprised myself and others with how easily animals trust me. I've had birds land on me without provocation, cats run right up to me who's owners swore they would never be held, and twice have handled dogs that I was later told were very unfriendly and that surprised I wasn't at least snapped at, let alone growled at. Of course, I'm not stupid and I'm still human. Had those dogs ever growled at me, I'd have never risked it. There have been plenty of times when an animal is just too shy or scared to approach me. I am not claiming to be Snow White, I was just trying to relate with you a little.
ASL interpreting long version:
One of the biggest, most fundamental structures of every culture is language; remove the language and you threaten to completely destroy the culture. That being said, people don't realize that being deaf isn't just lacking one of your senses. In every other case, missing one of your 5 senses prompts the socially acceptable option to get it replaced or repaired, but being deaf is a big exception. Because communication with a deaf person usually goes through a completely different language, it makes deafness into a completely separate culture (ASL is not a code or related to English at all, they are completely different languages in every way that Spanish and French are different from each other and English itself). Because of that, it is NOT usually socially acceptable in the Deaf community to try and return hearing to someone who is part of the culture. Yes, if you grew up hearing all of your life and lost your hearing because of a firecracker, then no one minds you getting your hearing fixed. But a parent bearing a deaf child with a deaf adult involved will usually refuse any treatment that can return the child's hearing. It kind of sounds weird doesn't it? Our instincts tell us to protect and provide the best health for children, so it's natural for a hearing person to feel uncomfortable for "letting a child suffer" by allowing it to remain deaf. But being deaf opens them to a culture just as rich in art, language, and education as being hearing would.
I am a hearing person and I do understand that being able to sense with hearing is an advantage. This could be argued as "better," but generally a deaf person doesn't have the options for clear hearing like we do. Their options allow hearing to be possible, but it's usually a completely different quality of sound. They're still considered hearing disabled; it just opens them up to participate in learning an aural language and participate in hearing culture. Which, that might seem better to one of us because that's the team we're on, but hearing culture and aural languages aren't any better for a developing, intelligent mind than Deaf culture and visual languages. There are exceptions of course, but the main point I always try to teach when someone is willing to read or hear about my profession is that being deaf is not just a disability that needs to be cured.
Why is this important to me? Because I am surprised at how little awareness I had or was available of deafness and Deaf culture when I was younger. Deaf history in America is heartbreaking. And it's all because our human nature to resist change prevented most hearing people from acknowledging signed languages weren't just crude handshapes, and that aural languages weren't necessarily more superior. I felt these same ways due to the lack of awareness that languages were fundamental aspects of culture, ASL is completely unrelated to English, and thus deafness is it's own culture. I consider myself to be a very open-minded person, and these facts of deafness and Deaf culture being surprising to me made me realize at how unaware the country is in general to those facts, and how this unawareness has affected and can possibly continue to affect the members of the culture.
End!
