Can I Hear You Now?

Dear Diary.

While I worked today, this stupid couple came up to the counter and started talking at me what they wanted, not looking at me, not caring. My hearing was off when they walked up, and they got mad when I asked them to repeat what they'd said and look at me while they did. They called me retarded. I hate when people call me that, they asked why I even had the job in customer service if I couldn't even hear the customers. Charlie had to take me out back to cool down while Frank turned the couple away and made them leave. It's not my fault I can't hear all the time, and it's their problem, and just plain rude if they aren't going to look at me when they speak. I've gotten heaps better at lip reading, so much so, that it's like I'm not deaf at all. But when people are rude like that, I just want to strangle them!

Tonya is a girl with hearing difficulties and a Mother who cannot talk.

This is her diary in her own words, how she went through life, dealing with bullies, dealing with her impairment and figuring out how to get around judgemental people who only make her life more difficult.

Follow her from the age of ten onwards through the ups and downs in her life, as she confides in the words she writes into her diary.

(Diary story, not based on real events)

DD/MM/YY