The Girl with Hearing Aid
The “Thoughtful” may be a word to describe my first impression to Jackie. I never knew a girl at my age could think this way. Jackie is probably the first peer who actually inspires me and also the first person who gives me a lot of advice on drawing. She is athletic, creative, artistic,sunny, and may be kind of weird. She is an ordinary Asian girl. Her dark skin shows how much she loves the outdoor life. “I love running in the forest, it somehow keeps my brain stay awake when I’m tired.” Unlike usual high school girls, Jackie doesn’t care about what she wears at all. She always wears a regular T-shirt and capris in studio. Audrey Hepburn once said, “As you grow older, you will discover that you have two hands, one for helping yourself, the other for helping others.”
p u e v i g r e v e one that n However, Jackie realized that she has the power to help others in a pretty young age. Because of her own hearing problems; she made a non-profit organization called One Picture One Voice in order to raise money for the children who also have hearing loss in Taiwan. She is not just talking about her goal, she makes action. Jackie is just cool in her own way. She is like a rainbow, showing those beautiful colors after the rainstorm. Jackie is that kind of person who has a good sense of humor and always tells a funny joke in a calm way.(Which makes the joke even funnier.) Jackie faces stress like other people; however, she has a strong faith in herself that tells her “You can do it.” She has experienced hearing problems and even got bullied by her best friend. I asked her, “How did you move on The drawing piece Jackie was working on during the interview.
from the years of friendship with your best friend?” She shrugged her shoulders and said, “Well, it took me a long time to walk away from it. But there is so much fun thing in
future, why do I need to stuck with somebody who just ignored me without telling me anything?” I think people can hardly notice that Jackie is actually a deaf. I was surprised by that because I thought she only had some hearing impairment but wasn’t a totally deaf. “I have only 30 percent range of hearing, classified as severely-hearing-impaired. There is like 5 or 6 levels before deaf.” She explained all these knowledge to me. “I hope you don’t have a hard time to talk to me then because I have a heavy accent and sometime I talk pretty fast.” “I read lips and wearing hearing aid so it brings my hearing level to 80 percent. Well, your accent is not a problem anyway. It doesn’t sound any difference to me. In fact, you are easier to talk to than other people (laughing).”
I have only 30 percent range of hearing, classified as severely-hearing-impaired.
Jackie’s deafness made her decide to do something meaningful for children who have hearing problems too, and the result turned out to be One Picture One Voice. “This is an organization for helping children with hearing problem in Taiwan. We sell our artworks, each piece is 25 dollars and all the money will send back to Taiwan. These money will help children have a good condition for learning speaking. Our mission is “Let the children speak. Let them be heard by the world - loudly and clearly!”” “I first found out my disability in hearing at seven years old. Well, it probably beginning around when I was four years old,” She recalled. Jackie didn’t totally discover her deafness until her English teacher from elementary school, Ms. Becky, noticed her spotty speech. She could talk but there were many words she couldn’t pronounce. Ms.Becky notified Jackie’s parents, who immediately brought her to the doctor. After a series of testing, the doctor confirmed her hearing loss. “I assigned to a speech therapist, who helped me to get back to the talking world. It was really hard, and that’s why I want to help the people who also suffer by hearing loss.”
Let the children speak. Let them be heard by the world loudly and clearly!
Jackie’s drawings from One Picture One Voice Website. Each one is selling for hearing loss children.
Even though Jackie’s deafness made her need to work harder than other people, she never gave up on what she wants to learn, such as dancing and piano. “I joined the dance team in my school when I was 13. Most people started learning dance at 6 or 7 years old. And I’m proud to say that I’m super good!(laughing)! I won the first place for solo competitions. I really like dancing.” However, being a successful dancer was lot of hard work since Jackie couldn’t wear hearing aid on the stage. “Oh my god, it was so hard in the beginning. Because I can’t hear the music, my hearing aid sometime fall off so I can’t wear them.” She needed to count every single step in her head for the whole entire time. “It was pretty annoying.” She rolled her eyes, “But I can say I get used to it now.” “Piano was even harder since I can’t hear the key. I just learned to feel the keys. Just can’t rely on hearing. You can’t imagine
I just try to make it fun by my imagination
how boring that was when all you can hear in the piece is like a drumming sound or something, and piece go for 5 to 8 minutes sometimes.” she said. “But then, I just try to make it fun by my imagination which was pretty successful.” In the very beginning, Jackie just wanted to do something for the people who are suffering from the same problem as she has. Then she suddenly thought about her drawing. “Well, I’m deaf. And my art skill is great but so what? They’re useless if I just have them, but don’t do anything with them, right? so I was selling artworks at school to people who really want them they come and ask me so I realized that I can make money by drawing!” However, she knew she didn’t need the money from drawing since her mother provides everything she needs. “I remember how my mom and I talk about our native country Taiwan and why we never move there.
So I told my mom about the idea of helping children in Taiwan, she thought it was a good idea so we started doing all the works and research. Lately, we found children’s hearing foundation and their mission so I decided to use art to raise the donation money.” Lately, Jackie told me more about her school life. “Like every other person, I don’t like school.” She simply said. “I’m getting tired of the people from my school who gets stress out because of grade. They always make me nervous.”
about the teachers giving unfaired grades.” Jackie’s attitude is pretty obvious, what she thinks is to accept what happen, get over it, move on, focus on what you want to do. She doesn’t consider grade is the most important thing. “Process is more important than result.” While many kids are complaining about their school works and grade, she knows, that somewhere there are more children live in ill condition. And those children need her help. “I don’t want to waste time on getting stress from school, I want to use the time to do
have more influence, not necessarily power like political power or wealth that most people want but just the ability to stir things up and try to improve the world.” Her eyes were shining because of the excitement from her dream. Here, you can’t see how much pain she experienced in her social life or how much effort she put in her goal. Here, you are just seeing a happy girl who doesn’t complain about what God has done to her but appreciates everything she has and try to make this world better.
I want to make a BIG awesome mass in society! I asked,“It seems like you think in a different way with other people in your school, do you feel different with them?” “Well, it depends on who but that was what my social circle used to be and what a lot still are. So now I’m kind of like a floater?(laughing) I don’t have energy to worry about that kind of stuff. And honestly if I get a bad grade on test, so what? It doesn’t matter in a long run. I will know why like I didn’t study at all or I just need to do some extra help out of school. I’m not going to complain or bitch
something meaningful. You know, I have a life.” “I want to make a BIG AWESOME MASS in society!” Jackie said. I could see she was pretty exciting about her future, her dream, and her goal. “Like how?” I asked. “You know, I think the entertainment industry is the biggest and most influential thing right now so I want to become somewhat like a Dali. (Salvador Dali) He wasn’t just a fine artist but he dabbled in entertainment too. He also hung out with high society so he could
“For my future, I will just explore and explore and explore. I won’t give myself any limit. i’m just going to go on and on, and glance at Dali once in awhile to keep myself on track.”