Over my years as a professional volleyball player I have received countless DMs from other hard-of-hearing people, sharing their own stories with me and asking questions about my experiences as a deaf athlete. I want to share a series of posts over the next few weeks, exploring my personal journey through life as a hard-of-hearing person. A collection of thoughts and stories that might give you more of a glimpse into how I confront, adapt, struggle, and at times, triumph as a deaf person. A lot of stories will relate to my athletic journey, as volleyball has been a huge part of my life, but they will also touch on the more ordinary parts of my life, like my relationship with my family and friends. . . So, to start things off, some background on my hearing disability. I was born with severe-to-profound hearing loss in both ears, likely caused by a combination of damage and/or underdevelopment to the auditory nerve and middle ear. Without my hearing aids, I can only hear 10-20% of “norma...