You wouldn't treat your eye like this... so why your ear?

Please read this description. It's necessary to understand the full meaning we're trying to convey, for this isn't just a picture, but a collab work by me and ~Pezy.

~Pezy (Ariel) is my best friend, and she has hearing loss. I never really thought about it much, like I'm sure you haven't either, but after reading some of the stuff she said, I realized that we all really do take our ears for granted.

Instead of me killing it by going on more (xD), I'll just turn the rest of this over to Ariel.

This is a piece she wrote about her hearing loss, and I think if you're wise you'd read it to get the straight-on perspective of something you may have never thought twice about.

by :

Driving down the street, you hear the car down the block, radio blasting, the music so loud you can hear nearly every lyric. Walking down the street you see kids with iPod’s, headphones shoved into their ears, the music drowning out any noise, even of that car radio’s blaring music. A fire truck zooms by, sirens blazing, that god awful sound vibrating in your ear. Yet you think nothing of this. You simply go on with your day, put in your own iPod, and blast your music. You turn on your own car radio, windows rolled up, and put the stereo up to full volume to “drown yourself in your music”. You don’t understand that you’re ruining your hearing. You don’t understand that there are people who would kill to have your hearing. You don’t understand.... you don’t understand.

I’ve had hearing loss for as long as I can remember. I wasn’t born with it, my hearing was fine as a baby... but somehow I lost it. I’m fully deaf in one ear, and have partial hearing loss in the other. I got a hearing aid when I was younger, but after 3 years I just stopped wearing it. It was a nuisance, and it made me feel even more self-conscious. I learned to live with it, I learned to deal with it, but I’m still upset about it. Why me? Why was I cursed with this??? Did I do something to deserve it? It isn’t fair... not at all. The worst thing is, I’m taunted by it every day. I see people every day, able to hear out of both ears. They can play music in one ear, and hear out of the other, and it’s not a problem. They don’t need to ask people to repeat themselves. They don’t have to pretend they understand what someone is saying, because they feel stupid for constantly having to ask people to repeat themselves. They take it for granted, while I’m stuck with this curse. I’d rather have been deaf since birth than to see what I could have, but I am unable to have it. It’s absolute torture seeing people purposefully listening to their music so loud, and they don’t understand what they’re doing to their ears. My whole life has been affected by my hearing loss... it’s torture.

Everyday is a reminder of my problem. Every day I ask people to repeat themselves, every day people are frustrated because I have to ask them to repeat themselves. It gets tiring, and frustrating. It’s the reason I’m not social. It’s so incredibly difficult to have a social life... it’s nearly impossible. Every day I accidentally ignore people, because they’re speaking on my deaf side. Every day... every day... Every day I wish I could have full hearing... every day I wish that I’d wake up and I’d suddenly be able to hear. Every day I wish, and every day I know it won’t happen. Every day I live in fear of my hearing going away totally. Every day... every day...

You know, I can’t even understand the concept of hearing out of both ears. In class one day, we had a sort of relax period, and people were listening to their music on their iPods. They had one headphone in, and one out so they could talk to people. It got me thinking... how is that even possible? I don’t even understand it. I asked my friend, “Isn’t that weird, hearing music in one ear, and hearing people talk in the other?” and she just gave me a weird look and shook her head. Such a simple thing to many people is unable to be understood by me.

It even hurts. There will be times where I get excruciating pain in my ear, that won’t stop. I have to wait for it to blow over. I can’t get on a plane without being in pain, and pretty much going deaf. So much pressure in my ear that I can’t even hear someone talking right in my ear. I once started crying when I was on a plane, the pain was so unbearable, and I scared my friends to death. They didn’t know what was going on... I didn’t even know what was going on. I never had this happen to me before, this pain never happened... it was the first time it had happened. I was terrified... I was so scared that I was going to lose my hearing totally, I couldn’t hear anyone. If only, if only...

To be able to hear. To be able to hear fully. How wonderful a gift that would be. How easy life would be. How happy I would be. It’ll never happen though, never. All I can do is warn others of the affects of hearing loss. You don’t want it to happen to you... and you have to be careful. Once it’s gone it’s GONE. You can’t get it back, unless you’re rich and can afford to have surgery, which for certain hearing losses, it isn’t even possible I may not be able to have full hearing, but you do, and you need to protect that.

You don’t want to end up like me.


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The point is, treat your hearing as if it were a gift, because it is. Don't damage your ears by listening to extra-loud music, avoiding protection during appropriate times, and etc, because life without hearing... Ariel just explained.

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If you want to show your support for hearing loss awareness, pick up the stamp I made here --> [link]

Thanks for reading, it really means a lot to me and Ariel.

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Artist comments about the picture: I know it's ew xD Just ignore the anatomy, lineart, coloring, shading, pose and composition ! Oh, and she's supposed to be shining a lazer pointer in her eye if you didn't get that =[