The first time I encountered a deaf/hard of hearing person it caught me of guard. I was working in the ticket booth at Georgia Veterans State park in Cordele. A gentleman pulled up to the booth and before I could get a word out, he gestured to his ear, shook his head no, and waited patiently for me to respond.
I had never dealt with a situation like this before. At first I wasn’t sure what to do. I only knew a handful of words in American Sign Language, (ASL) from which I had learned from a show called “Switched at Birth.” I simply held up one finger and mouthed “one moment.” As I got his parking pass ready my mind was reeling in an attempt to think of anything I had learned in the past to help me in this situation, but I drew nothing. I was fumbling with my marker in hand trying to write the date on his parking pass. I’m not sure why, but I was extremely nervous. As I gave him his parking pass he held five dollars out the car window and was on his way. After I had retreated back to the booth, I felt uneasy and a bit unhappy with the way I had handled the situation. I felt bad that I didn’t know how to communicate with him, but I knew that was something that could be fixed easily.
I downloaded an American Sign Language Dictionary on my phone and began to look up the words I most commonly used when speaking with customers. I practiced forming sentences with the words I had learned, and after I had mastered the basics I began looking up every word I had said but didn’t know how to sign.
Later on I found a YouTuber that could sign along with popular songs. I was very interested in that for a while, and began to sign along with songs on the radio. This helped me learn new words, and it gave me an idea of what I knew and what I didn’t know. It was fun and it gave me the practice that I needed. I joined ASL groups on Facebook and found some other people that were learning as well. Then I ran into a girl from Illinois who was willing to practice with me over skype. Her name is Monica, she is deaf. The first conversation we had was difficult none the less, but she was very patient with me. She taught me a lot. We skyped about once a week telling each other about our day, and trips that we wanted to go on. After about one month I was able to have a regular conversation. We became good friends and we still talk to each other.
One day as I was working in the Park Office, a man came to the counter and started typing on his phone. He typed a bit and backspaced, typed a bit more and backspaced. I could tell he was having a difficult time, so I got his attention and signed to him. “Are you deaf?” He nodded his head yes, and I signed to him again, “I know sign language.” He was immediately relieved and a smile spread across his face. He began to sign back to me, “My friends are in the camp ground. I have come to stay with them for the weekend.” I welcomed him to the park, something I was not able to do with the previous guest. I got his paperwork ready for him and was able to talk with him a bit about his plans for this weekend. “That’s my kayak. This will be my first time kayaking”, he said. “Oh, you will have a lot of fun!”, I replied.
He made his way down to his camp site and after he had left I took a deep breath and was almost in tears. I could tell it meant a lot to him to have someone to communicate with and it made my day as well. I had been practicing to have a chance at moment like this for two months! I still haven’t seen the first man I encountered, but when I do I hope to tell him that he inspired me to learn American Sign Language.
