Jordan's Essay Experience

Yesterday, Jordan came home and told me he had to write an essay about Valentine's Day for Italian class.
We sat down together and he wrote the following: (printed with permission from Jordan)

I tried in every way possible to avoid writing this essay, because Valentine's Day is a painful holiday for me. I'm fifteen years old and I don't have a girlfriend. I would like to fall in love, but I'm not ready.

When I was very young and in Elementary School, every year I brought chocolate, flowers and love notes to one of my classmates who had bright blue eyes. Once I even took one of my mother's bracelets to declare my love for her, but my mom found out and I had to give back the bracelet.

My mom loves Valentine's Day and this year she gave me a pair of boxer shorts with a wolf that make a sound that goes, "Uu- Uu- Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuu!" These things are funny, but I suffer anyway.

I want to find my soulmate; my ideal girl would be beautiful, intelligent and fun.
She would have to be sensitive, because she would need to understand how much difficulty I have in talking to girls. I am a gentleman, and I would like to find a girl who appreciates that and who isn't looking for someone "COOL".

In any case, I really hope that for next Valentine's Day I'll have found this girl, because I'm getting tired of my mom's presents.

OKAY

So, Jordan went to school this morning ready to hand in the assignment, only the teacher announced to the class that each person would have to
READ
THEIR
ESSAY
ALOUD!!!!!!

All I can say is that he did it.
23 girls in the class, and 6 guys.
His class requested that he wear the boxer shorts to school:-)

Champagne and Lobster

Emma: I'm not good at this stuff.
Adam: At what, talking?
Emma: Yeah, talking... communicating... relationship stuff. It's just... If we were in a relationship I'd become a weird scary version of myself, and my throat starts constricting, the walls start throbbing, it's like a peanut allergy. It's like an emotional peanut allergy.

I wanted to post for Valentine's Day, but I didn't- because I feel like if I write about what I'm living right now, it may disappear.
Jordan did not want to go to school. But I made him go anyway.
I remember when he used to bring his classmates handmade valentines and the day he took my bracelet to give to a girl he was in love with.
Those first-love emotions get lost when we "grow up".
It's easy to talk about sex education and reproduction; but the emotions involved, the sentiments that we should really discuss in depth are often overlooked.

It's not about the birds and the bees..it's totally about the butterflies.
Butterflies can be scary, uncontrollable and unpredictable.

Some choose to remain safe and isolated in that cocoon, while others break free.

The drama comes when the cocoon is broken open when you least expect it.
And at that great moment when solitude has become safety, you open your eyes and think, "Shit"...

To make a long story short, we all experience fear, insecurity and curiosity throughout our lives.
We live emotions in one way when we are adolescents and in another way as adults.

Or at least I thought it was like that, because at this present moment, I am a 40 year old woman living the emotions of a 15 year old with butterflies in her stomach.

Life IS what happens to you while you're busy making other plans...

Jordan's Presentation

There were moments when I slammed my head against the wall.
Moments when I looked at Jordan and wondered if it would EVER get easier.
He was an extremely difficult, stubborn child who NEVER listened or stood still.
I had to cram the speech therapy lessons down his throat, we had battles of will and never-ending tantrums.
Homework with hearing aids was a nightmare, he needed to concentrate on my lips, focus and try to understand. Every word was mental torture transformed into an accomplishment.
Every day adults, parents ask me if there's a difference between hearing aids and the cochlear implant.
The World.

We had a conference in Grosseto on Saturday. Our association had some of our kids step up to the microphone and speak. Amazing.
I prepared a powerpoint presentation for Jordan that went something like this:
Slide 1- My name is Jordan and I was born with a profound bilateral sensorineural hearing loss.
Slide 2- I wore hearing aids for eight years and then I underwent surgery for a cochlear implant.
Thanks to my cochlear implant, I can hear... (photo of his ci)
Slide 3- My passion is...(photo of X-box Live) He explained how he plays X-box live with people from other countries, how he hears using a headset and speaks French, Spanish and English.
Slide 4- I'm a little bit Italian...(a photo of our family, his Italian grandmother and his Uncle) He talked about his family, his grandma's great cooking and how he has fun with his Uncle.
Slide 8- And I'm a little bit American...( a photo of Sofia and Jordan on the plane, Jordan and my Dad, Jordan and my mom, Jordan, Elvis and Sofia and Jordan eating a donut) He said how it was difficult to live so far away from his American family and talked about what he did while in the USA.
Slide 14- A photo of him and his friend- he told the story of how he just recently changed schools because he CHOSE to improve his life.
Applause.
Luckily I remembered to take one picture as I was clicking the powerpoint- I had to stop the conference to do so:-)
Here it is...


I would have to say that it was an emotional moment for me.
I knew that he would speak one day.
I never imagined he would speak before a group of people not only about his hearing loss...
but about his life.