Joshua D. Cooke

Let's get something straight right away.  When I was around two years old or so, it was discovered I had a hearing impairment.  I was fitted with hearing aids and have dealt with the implications of this fact my entire life.  For all we know, my hearing impairment is simply a result of a premature birth and the all-out efforts to keep me alive.  The way I see it, when one looks at pictures of myself looking nothing short of a crazy science experiment at birth, I consider myself quite blessed to have come out of it all with nothing a few scars and a hearing impairment to show for it. Now, in many ways growing up with a hearing impairment was not easy.  First of all, I was and still am extremely stubborn when it comes to wearing my hearing aids.  It's not like those things fit in your ear like a glove on your hand.  They are uncomfortable and annoying.  They rub against the inside of you ear at times and makes them itchy and sore.  There were plenty of times growing up that I r

I was recently reminded that I have been remiss in writing in this blog over the past couple of months.  Between that reminder and yet another reminder of the realities of life, it's important for me to put some things down here and I hope that I can once again grab the attention of my readers.  Forgive my absensce. This post is not an easy one for me to write.  I have had a lot of thoughts over the past couple of days, and I really don't know how they are going to come together.  I do know this though.  It is fully my intention to write this post both as a tribute and as a reminder.  I write this post from my perspective and my perspective only.  I am not going to sit here and pretend to understand all the facts and circumstances, and at the same time I am not going to skirt around the truth either as I see it.  I am an individual who has become extremely familiar with hindsight, and I wouldn't be surprised if much of what I write here is simply in hindsight. On Dec