My parents are both Deaf. They've been that way their whole life. And before you start to feel bad for them...Don't. That is who they are. It is who they are proud to be. They wouldn't have it any other way. They raised 3 children and sent them to college. My father worked for the same place for over 40 years...something we rarely see anymore. My father came to every baseball game. My mom was a room mother at school every year. They have a tremendous amount of friends. Some people may say they are limited by their disability. I would argue otherwise.

Their situation is different than a lot of people I meet on a day to day basis. Since they have never been able to hear, they do not experience any emotional pain of losing their hearing. Think about if you were born with only 4 fingers on each hand. You might feel a bit different than other people, but you would learn what it takes to survive and you would never know otherwise. But if you lost your finger in an accident later on in life, you would have to relearn how to do many basic skills which creates a lot of distress in people's lives. Hearing loss is no different. When we lose our ability to hear normally, it creates a hole in our sense of being. It is then up to me to utilize my knowledge, my background, to help identify what that void is and how to go about finding the right solution.

So to answer the question on why I became an audiologist, it is because of my parents. Were they not deaf, I never would have thought a class in hearing science was even remotely interesting. And I most certainly would not have pursued a major in audiology. Thanks Mom and Dad!!!

Dr. Mark Christian