Category: Life

Did I mention I work in PR?

Not this kind. I’m not even sure what this is about. Apparently it’s a ” togh case.”

Sometimes I wonder what I’d do if I wasn’t doing what I am doing. I often joke with my friends down the hall in HR that I’d like to come and join them. They seem amused.

I’ve only had one other job. And that wasn’t a job job. Well, it was work but it was during the summers.

I was a career camp counsellor. I never worked in fast food or retail or in an office when I was a student. Just camp. Yes, it’s true I don’t enjoy camping but it was a city day camp. No tents. No bugs. No hike to pee.

I started off at a camp that involved campfires but that was a brief flirtation of only two summers. But it may surprise my reader that one year I won the campfire contest. Yes, my team got a fire going first using only one match. (It’s all about the pyramid.) Shocking, considering I don’t turn on the stove now. I’m still handy with a match, however.

So, while I don’t enjoy camping, isn’t it a comfort to know that if we ever suffer a nuclear apocalypse I can keep us warm and dry. Plus, I know what berries and twigs to eat.

I did this camp business all through high school and university. That was about seven years. During the school year, my part-time job was working at a Saturday morning sports club. I’m not (not!) a gifted athlete but I do know all the rules for many indoor and some outdoor sports. I really enjoyed that job. I especially enjoyed making up new rules for the games. (A goal doesn’t count unless a girl makes the assist or both the twins need to touch the ball before a goal counts.) It was about the kids, really. I enjoy (other people’s) children. They’re fun and they’re often funny. And at the end of the day they go to someone else’s home.

Where is all this going anyway? Ok, I am heading towards what I might have become. A professional dodgeball player perhaps? Or a teacher?

Of course, this is all just silly talk now. I don’t think I would have enjoyed it as much as I like what I do now.

But it’s funny that I spent all those years at camp. I know more camp songs, cheers and yells than the average gal. But what the heck, no one’s saying you can’t have a good old singsong during coffee break or a cheer on the streetcar.

It is not like I hear things at a lower volume. When I don’t wear my hearing aids it’s like I only hear parts of things and often I can’t understand some of the words. If I am facing you, I can almost always make out what what’s being said because I read lips quite well.

But if I close my eyes or if I am not facing you, chances are I will not make out what you are saying. I know you are talking but the words are not clear.

I started to wear hearing aids when I was a kid and I wore them into university. But I hated them and often I just didn’t use them. Sure, I would put them in for a lecture or a movie but I would pull them out right after. It was not that I was embarrassed. It was the fact that they made everything much too loud and it was just exhausting to live life at such a high volume. Sure the aids made people’s voices louder but they also made the air conditioning sound like a 747.

Eventually I stopped wearing them, thinking I could function pretty well without them.

And I was, I guess, except in those situations where I had to pay attention to more then one conversation at a time. Finally, a few years ago I realized I was missing too much in meetings at work and I decided to bite the bullet. I was getting very tired of trying really really hard to hear. And I was getting tired of being out of the loop. Asking what happened in a meeting you attended can raise eyebrows. Were you asleep, Chris?

My audiologist told me things had vastly improved in hearing aid technology and the new digital hearing aids would amplify the sounds I need to hear (like speech) but would stop the old 747 A/C problems that I dreaded.

He was right. My new aids are incredible. And when I am not wearing them I realize how very much I was missing.

I wear earwear.