Example Essay

In August of 1982 I was born, a healthy little boy 7 pounds, 7 ounces and 21 inches long. As first time parents my mom and dad were very proud and happy to have a healthy child. Little did they know that their little boy had a serious illness hidden deep under his skin, unseen by the naked eye. It would take almost five years of constant ear infections and illness before they realized something very serious was wrong with their bundle of joy. "Cholesteatoma" Dr. Christopher Daniels of Concord Otolaryngology said to my parents in 1987. Cholesteatoma a word my parents had never heard before, but would never again forget.
Cholesteatoma a disease that would be my biggest adversary for over thirty years. Life before and after this disease has proven very difficult and I have had a lot of struggles to overcome. Some of these struggles included finishing my traditional education and attending college, learning and completing basic life skills, and the physical, mental, and emotional toll it has taken on me.

Cholesteatoma is a disease that infects the mastoid cavity within the head. In my case it continued to grow and it ate the bones in my inner ear and started to eat a whole in my skull as it made its way to my brain. Fortunately for me the Dr. cleaned it out before any brain damage occurred, but major damage had already been done. As a result of this I have a hard time processing sounds. As you can imagine I had a hard time learning to read and write because I could not make out the sounds of basic letters and could not put them together to form words. I got way behind the other kids in school and had to work extra hard to learn to read and write. I would spend a part of my day with a special ed teacher who helped me learn these skills. I worked really hard all through Jr. High and high school just to keep pace with kids my age. I would have to have extra time to complete tests, and sometimes have verbal tests instead of written ones. I had a special education teacher assigned to me all through school that gave me extra attention and helped me get through grade school. In college I decided that I wanted to succeed on my own without any extra help. I knew that the world was a fast pace place and no one was going to help me get through this thing we call life. Today I only have a few credits left to earn before I receive my business degree and I am just shy of a 4.0 average. It’s not easy for me and I spend a lot of my time with my head in the books trying to learn as much as possible. I have learned how to teach myself instead of relying on others to do it for me.

Believe it or not I had a hard time just speaking up until about age 18 or so. I knew that if I could hear myself talking I was being too loud so as a result I became very soft spoken. So much so that sometimes people could not hear me or did not even know I was talking. I also had such a bad hearing loss that sometimes people thought I was ignoring them when they spoke, but I really just could not hear them. These issues made it very hard to have a basic conversation with someone. I would always end up saying things like “what did you say, are you talking to me, I can’t hear you”. I had a hard time with driving and cooking as well. I could not hear other cars on the roads or the oven timer going off. I rarely would answer the phone the first time a person called me because I could not hear the ringer. When I played sports in high school I had a difficult time because I could not hear the whistles. Imagine being on the football field and laying an opponent out after the whistle and trying to explain to the referee that you can’t hear the whistle. Now I’m a parent and I cannot stay home with my kids overnight alone because I can’t hear them when they wake up in the middle of the night or when they are hurt and need my help. A lot of simple everyday tasks are very difficult if not impossible as a result of the effects of this disease. Every day is a constant struggle just to be normal, just to survive in this world.

During the last thirty years I have had a total of nine major ear surgeries. I have a permanent six inch scar that starts at my temple and continues around my left ear down to my ear lobe. If you are behind me you can’t miss it and everyone who sees it wants to know how I got it. My scar is a constant reminder that I’m different from everyone else and of the pain I have endured all these years. Looking at my ear you will notice that the opening is three times larger than that of a normal ear. It looks like someone took and ice cream scoop and scooped out the center of my ear. I can’t even count the number of times someone has thought it would be fun to pick on me because of my appearance or try to see how far down my ear a finger can go. In eighth grade I started school with a bandage that wrapped around my head and covered half of my face. I don’t even want to relive that week of hell here so I’ll move on, but I’m sure you can use your imagination.  I’ve dealt with this kind of tormenting my entire life knowing form an early age that I was different and that my life would not be the same as someone without my condition. It has been insanely difficult to stay focused and remember that I can do anything that anyone else can do. In my head I hear those words, but often question the reality of the message. After so many years of abuse a person cannot help but be effected. For many years I was an emotional disaster. I had low self-esteem, thought I was freakish looking, and truly thought I would amount to nothing.

Cholesteatoma destroyed my ear and my hearing, but created the man I am today and the man I was destined to be. Despite all of my struggles, weaknesses, and disadvantages I have learned that nothing in this world hits harder than life and it will beat you down to your knees and keep you there if you let it. It is not important how many times you get hit or how hard, but rather how much you can take while getting up and moving forward because that is how winning is done.