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Hi Everyone! Can you hear me well? Yeah? Okay.
My name is Heather Artinian and I am really
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excited to be here in front of you all today.
I want to start off with a question? What
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world do you belong to? Because that's a question
that I get all the time. My answer -- is always:
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"The Heather world." Today, I want to tell
you about how I got to the Heather World and
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I hope that what I'm about to say today will
help you understand better why you should
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build bridges between the worlds of your own
lives. I was born profoundly deaf, which means
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I could not hear anything but an atomic bomb,
which would be useful, I'm thankful for that.
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Otherwise, I get a peaceful night sleep every
night without fail, which is awesome. My family
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is deaf, my parents are deaf, they're also
culturally deaf, which means, they communicate
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using sign language, they went to deaf schools,
they have deaf friends, they are just totally
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immersed in that world. I have two younger
deaf brothers, who are the same way. But,
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I also have hearing grandparents, hearing
uncles, deaf aunts, deaf cousins. So my family
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is just a giant mix of hearing and deafness,
which I love, it's my favorite part of my
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family. When I was five years old, I was standing
on a bridge. And, to my left, were my deaf
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parents and the deaf world. And, to my right,
were my hearing grandparents, and the hearing
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world. I was just five years old at the time
and I desperately wanted to be included in
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both worlds. And that's how the controversy
started. The documentary came about because
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I decided that I wanted a cochlear implant,
which is a device that helps me hear. And,
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my deaf parents, and the deaf world were very
critical because they felt like I was saying
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that the deaf world's not good enough for
me; that I was rejecting my parent's whole
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life, which was not the case. But then, we
got criticism from the hearing world as well,
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because they looked at my parents, saying,
"why wouldn't you give your child the opportunity
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to hear?" Complicated question, right? And,
that's how it started. At the end of the movie,
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after all the fighting, my parents ultimately
decided that it was the best choice at the
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time for me not to get the cochlear implant.
So, I was once before in the middle of the
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bridge, but now I was totally immersed in
the left side, the deaf world. We moved to
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Maryland, which is a huge deaf community compared
to where I was living before in New York.
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You went to the Blockbusters, or restaurants,
the grocery stores, it was easy because they
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were very aware of the deaf world, they knew
how to interact. I remember being back home
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in New York where my parents would sit in
a restaurant -- it was such a struggle just
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to order drinks. There would be a lot of "what's,"
"huhs," pointing - "oh, no, no, no, I didn't order
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this." But in Maryland the servers knew what to do
and my brothers and I went to deaf schools.
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My parents were visibly happy. But then, we
lived there for about three and a half years and
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my mom got really sick so we had to move back
to New York, and, I became like, I was put
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in front of the hearing world again. Kids
on my block, they all spoke, they all didn't
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sign and I remember looking at them like I
wanted to communicate with them I wanted to
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play with them. I was nine years old at the
time. And for a while, I did not want the
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cochlear implant. I desperately wanted to
move back to Maryland, move back to that comfort
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world that I'd known my whole life. But after
a while, and especially after my dad got passed
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over for a promotion at work because he was
deaf and could not communicate, I realized
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I did not want that for myself, I just didn't.
And I really wanted to be able to communicate
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with just anybody. So, I decided at ten years
old, I was going to get the cochlear implant.
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And my parents said, okay. My doctor told
me that the results I would get would be very
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minimal because I was ten years old and that
was past the language learning stage. That
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I probably would not learn how to speak or
hear very well but I wanted to try. Who knows
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right? Maybe it would work. And I think that
today, it did. I've gotten better at hearing,
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better at speaking. Right from the beginning,
I went to a hearing school. And I had no speech
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skills, no listening skills. People could
not understand me, they would just sit there
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and nod like "uh huh." I have no idea what
you're saying. But that's okay. And, throughout
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that time I was still going to speech therapy.
Then, I got to high school and I realized
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that my speech and hearing was getting better.
People were starting to understand me and
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I was starting to understand them. And, I
also played sports which was my way in, because
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people saw past the hearing or the lack thereof,
they saw me and they thought I was good at
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sports, so they wanted to be my friend. That
was my first opportunity that I saw to bridge
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gaps. What I would do is I would go to school,
then I would go to my clubs and activities.
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Then I would go to my practice, my second
practice, I would come home at nine o'clock
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at night, go straight to speech therapy, and
then after that I would do my homework, and
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I did that every day, right up until I graduated.
It was a lot of work, a lot of dedication,
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but I was willing to put in the work.And I saw
the results. I did not do all this myself,
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you know, I had a lot of help. I had speech
therapists who put up with me night after
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night, I had interpreters in the classroom
who helped me when I couldn't understand.
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I had a wonderful family, who, supported me
through all of this. When I was sixteen, my
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parents and my brothers moved to Rochester,
New York, which has a large deaf community,
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just like Maryland. I stayed behind and I
lived with my grandparents, because that was
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the best decision for me at the time, because,
I wanted to keep on doing what I had been
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doing all along -- going to speech and just,
building the bridges with people. And this
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is more pictures of my family, you have my
uncle and my aunt, my wonderful grandparents,
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and my other uncle and cousins. I fast-forward
to today. I am a junior at Georgetown University.
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I'm majoring in government, minoring in justice
and peace studies I'm at my dream school.
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I have dreams of going to law school. And,
hopefully, like everyone else at Georgetown,
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becoming a Supreme Court Justice. Who knows?
Maybe, maybe. Thank you. After high school
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I realized one thing, I didn't have to be
in the hearing world, I didn't have to be
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in the deaf world. I could just stand in
the middle and be my own world, the Heather
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World, which is a mixture of all kinds of
experience I've had- being deaf, living in
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the hearing world, having cochlear implants.
I have two now, by the way, I forgot to mention.
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Which brings me to my idea. I really strongly
believe that we all should grab the opportunity
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to bridge the worlds within out lives. Whether
your experiences are small or big, you can
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do it. I've learned through my experiences
that when people seem mean or they seem standoffish,
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its not because they don't like you. Most
of the time it's because they're scared or
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they don't understand. Most of the time, all
they see is the deaf, they don't see the Heather.
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So, it's my job and it's your job to reach out
-- try to build a bridge over that. So what
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I'll do is introduce myself and say, "hey
I'm Heather, I'm deaf, I know. But, I have
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cochlear implants and we communicate just
fine. If you don't understand me, I'm happy
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to repeat myself and trust me, my roommates
do it all the time." And, you'll see the difference
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-- people start realizing oh, she's normal,
you know, I can just have a conversation with
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her like everyone else. They become more comfortable,
which is the key: people are uncomfortable
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when they see new things, and I think it's
our job as human beings to reach out. And
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this idea can be applied to a variety of different
things: race, gender, disability, politics,
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access to education. Reach out, and you'll
be surprised. I really believe that all of
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us have experiences.
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Regardless of how big
or small, it will make an impact. Just by
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me reaching out to one other person about
my deafness, that person will probably become
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more comfortable around other deaf people.
And those people will probably become more comfortable
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around other things because they've tired
new things. And, I really feel like, once
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you bridge and you open yourself up, you help
them understand why you're worth building
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a bridge over. You are, we all are. But when
you open yourself up, they understand, and
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they will try, most of the time. I met my
best friend
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in high school and in middle school
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I was really shy, I didn't reach out to anybody.
I would just stand in the corner and say nothing.
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But, when I got my confidence in my speech,
I started reaching out to people. And, just
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by me reaching out to this one person, she
is now studying sign language -- she's fluent,
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almost fluent, studying speech pathology and
she hopes to serve the deaf community after
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just meeting me. So you can do that too just
by you reaching out about your experiences,
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you can make a change in someone else's life.
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But sometimes, people don't understand.
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I remember talking to this one person and
he would say to me, "So, where are you from?"
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I said, "Oh, I'm from New York." He's like,
"No, no, no, no, really, where are you
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from?" I went, "New York." He's like, "No,
no, no, no I can hear the accent. Where are
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you from?" And I was like "Oh, I'm deaf."
And they were like, "No way, you're speaking
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right now. Where are you frommmm?" I said,
"Okay, okay, you're right, I'm from Africa. That's
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where I'm from, that's where I get my accent."
So sometimes, it takes more effort than you
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think. But that's okay, that's okay. But other
than that, you will also get negative reactions.
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Building a bridge is not one sided, you need
the other person to be willing to come to
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you. And I've come across many situations
where people say to me, "Heather, why even
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bother going to law school? How are you even
going to communicate in the court room?" Or
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I've had people laugh at me and disregard
my opinion because they think I'm deaf and dumb.
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Or people will look at me and all they
see is the cost of an interpreter. But, here's
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what I say to those people. It's okay, its
part of human nature, people will have their
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beliefs. But what's important is that the
bridges that you do make with people will
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make up for those. Those bridges that you
make will move society forward and as you
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build bridges, those numbers will grow.
And the numbers of those who didn't believe
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in you will grow smaller, and I'm telling
you. When I get my diploma from law school,
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I've kept a list of all the people, I'm going
to email them my diplomas, and they will be
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sorry. They will be sorry.
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This is an example
of a bridge I made in college.
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My roommates are the best people I've ever met and I would
have never met them if I didn't have the courage
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to reach out and that was just my little shout
out to the most awesome people I know. Shout out.
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So my conclusion is, I'm standing in
the middle of the bridge. I'm understanding
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really that I don't have to chose what world
I'm in. I can be in the Heather World, and
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so can you if you have your own world, who
cares what anybody says? I think that we all
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should reach out, build bridges, be your own
ripple effect in the world, and I think that
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you will be very surprised at what you will
find at the other end of the bridge. So reach
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out, allow other people in, try to understand
different experiences, allow other to understand
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yours. No matter what your experiences are,
positive or negative, you will make an impact.
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Thank you.