Bill Burns

ÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝ As soon as I inserted my earplugs, I noticed a distinct difference.Ý It was difficult to understand the exact nature of what I was noticing, but eventually I was able to understand some of the fundamental differences between my experience as a fully-hearing person and those while hearing impaired.Ý It soon became apparent to me that I no longer heard the small, insignificant background noises that I had previously ignored.Ý The hum of my computer had vanished, the clicking of my keyboard as I typed was gone, the shuffling of passersby was no longer audible.Ý These sounds, which were all previously in my auditory threshold, were now at a level below what I was able to hear.Ý It surprised me what a great difference it made to experience an absence of the small noises I had been accustomed to. It was an eerie quiet.Ý

ÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝ Later, I began to notice noises that seemed to come from within me.Ý The sound of my breathing became prominent, as well as the sound of my pulse and swallowing.Ý The sounds generated from the motions of eating were particularly loud and unpleasant.Ý I could hear every bit of my chewing movements.Ý Additionally, anything that came in contact with my head rendered a fairly loud noise; merely scratching my head became a particularly noisy experience.Ý With my ears plugged and outside noise practically eliminated, these internal noises were no longer overwhelmed by the louder external sounds to which my ears were more sensitive when I was without earplugs.Ý Now, there was nothing to interfere with my hearing and noticing the sounds within my body.Ý

ÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝ One specific instance during my ear plug hours is especially memorable for me.Ý It was the first time I attempted to have a conversation with someone while wearing the ear plugs.Ý I was standing approximately twelve feet away from an acquaintance who was asking me how I was doing.Ý I immediately moved closer to her in an effort to better hear her; I had only understood a few of her words the first time.Ý I found that standing closer to three feet away from her allowed me to understand the majority of her words, but even still, it was apparent that my hearing remained impaired.Ý I found myself automatically looking at her mouth while she spoke rather than her eyes, which had been the target of my vision when she first began to speak to me.Ý Because I was initially so far away from her, the intensity of her voice was not strong enough to be audible to me.Ý Upon moving closer and looking at her lips rather than just her eyes, I was better able to comprehend what she was saying because I had the aid of visual cues.Ý

ÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝ In addition, while I was in the cafeteria eating lunch and speaking to several of my friends, I found that my friends who were sitting to my right were difficult to hear, as there was a very noisy group of students sitting further to their and my right.Ý A reasonable explanation for this would be that since my friends and the noisy group were both located to my right, there existed a strong masking of my friendsí voices.Ý

ÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝ What I particularly enjoyed about the earplugs was their effectiveness of blocking out the idiosyncrasies of my roommate.Ý When he types on his computer, it usually sounds like he is purposefully banging the keyboard with his fingers to make as much noise as possible.Ý He also often uses headphones, but at levels which can be heard by other people.Ý Before I used the earplugs, I tried to go to sleep earlier than my roommate.Ý I would turn on a small fan by my head in order to mask the noise that he made, but with the earplugs in, all of the background noise sounded much quieter.