Julia's Graduation

Matt took these pictures this morning and sent them to me.

Julia spent her first two months of life in the NICU at UCLA Hospital with
multiple organ failure due to blood loss. Her hearing loss was discovered during a routine exit exam when she was finally discharged, probably due to drugs she was given to save her life. If anything could be said to be good about it, they lived in the right place with all the best support and technology. She went to the John Tracy  (son of actor Spencer Tracy) Center, a preschool for deaf children and received her first cochlear implant from the House Ear Institute when she was 16 months old. I observed a session she had with an audio-verbal therapist who taught her how to interpret the sounds she was hearing via the implant and how to verbalize them. (To me it looked like she was playing with a very fancy and complex doll house with all the mod con furnishings and chatting with the nice lady sitting on the floor with her.)

When she was preparing to graduate from high school she sent me a copy of her college application essay. It brought tears to my eyes. 
Without a trace of self pity she wrote about her deafness and how she had decided it was important for her to own it and not hide behind it. She realized that if she was having trouble understanding someone, it was up to her to explain what they needed to do to help her.

The year after she started college, Covid hit. The college didn't shut down, but all the students were locked down on campus. Not only was she physically isolated in a single room, but she realized that masks pevented her from reading lips when she was speaking with people, isolating her socially as well. But she persevered.

This graduation is the result of a lot of hard work and dedication. She will go on to NYU for a Master's Degree in Administrative Counseling. 

Julia, you have come a long way those days when we would go on family walks and we would chat so much that we would fall far behind the rest of our group. You were full of ideas and dreams even then, and you continue to work toward achieving them. I am so proud of you.