Reporting & Writing
Below is a collection of my stories throughout my youth journalism career.
Excerpt from A New Perception (Chapter 5)
I provided this writing excerpt from my novel A New Perception to show the reality of ignorance toward the Deaf community in a scenario between a Deaf child and a hearing teenage girl. The reaction from the parents is most noted. Although I am a journalist, my love for writing is versatile. Throughout my youth writing career, I've developed a sense of comfort with my writing and how strong my voice can be. My editing team and I spent hours editing this chapter because it was important that we capture this moment through a virtuous lens. This scene could not be overlooked or left aside because of its nature. This taught me, as a journalist, that the lens of the story is the most important part when capturing a scene or a community. This is also like my "lead" to my story, to use journalistic terms. This scene sets the tone for what's to come.
Hours have gone by at Jane’s, and Julie waited for excitement. She needed a good tip to get on her feet, but no one had come in to get lessons or instrument fixes. The Smith family has six children, all of whom Julie taught at one point. The tips from that family certainly kept Julie from quitting her job and finding a new one. She’s confident someone would walk in soon, but she just can’t withhold the patience after hours of organizing guitar picks, sweeping the decaying carpet, and aimlessly staring at the wooden clock. Adrenaline was pounding through her veins; she needed to get her mind in place before deciding to make the most significant payment of her life. As her family drilled into her head, “Pray, pray, pray:” and so she did. She closed her eyes and imagined a mysterious, rich client. She was walking through the door and handing Julie a nice, crisp stack of cash so she could sprint out of the shop as fast as possible. Soon enough, a little boy and his family came in. Julie greeted them with smiles and a welcoming attitude, hoping they would be willing to give her some extra cash. The boy ran towards the counter and grabbed the guitar picks, eyeing the red one. The father stayed behind his family, looking at the store's surroundings. The mother is the first one to talk.
“Hello there,” says the mother. “My son has been interested in taking music lessons for a while now. His school doesn’t offer any musical anything. Do you think you can introduce him to some instruments?”
Before Julie answered, she looked at the boy to try and guess his age. He looked about nine or ten years old.
“Sure thing! How old is he?”
“He’s nine years old. He will be ten in December.” the mother replied, ruffling her hands through her son’s straight hair.
Julie smirked at the thought that she guessed his age right, but she quickly provided her services.
“Perfect!” Julie said, reaching under the desk to pull out the usual paperwork while she fixed the lesson room. “I’ll just have you guys fill out a couple of papers, and then we’ll be set!”
The parents sat in the corner of the store with the clipboard while Julie was left alone with the kid. While she finished cleaning the area and bringing in a couple of instruments, she had the kid come in and sit down on a small black chair. A grand piano, acoustic guitar, a small set of drums, a flute, and a microphone were set in the room. Julie closes the door behind her and awkwardly sits in the larger chair, facing towards the kid.
“Hi! My name is Julie. You can call me J for short. What’s your name?”
The kid didn’t respond. He looked at her with beady eyes and played with his fingers nervously. He let out a small smile but continued to swing his feet back and forth under the chair.
This wasn’t Julie’s first rodeo with shy kids. She handed him a book with different pictures and sounds of the instruments in front of him. She hoped he would gasp at a picture and realize it was right before him, and they would bond from there. But this wasn’t the case.
“Tell me which one you like! You can also tell me your name when you feel like it.” Julie said while looking at his parents through the window, hoping they would mouth his name to her.
Suddenly, the kid let out a small gasp at the keyboard piano in the book. He showed Julie the image of the piano, smiling intensely. Julie nodded. She got up and advised him not to leave
anywhere and that she would be back with the keyboard piano. She waved friendly at the parents as she walked to the piano area. They both gave each other a thumbs up. She didn’t want to tell his parents he was being shy. After all, she didn’t want to get them upset.
She grabbed the medium-sized keyboard piano and returned to the music room, hoping the kid would talk to her. As she set the piano down, she quickly plugged it in and closed the door again. Anxiously, she sat back down and adjusted the piano before him so he could reach her. She noticed something on his ear but assumed it had something to do with his head. She didn’t question it. She turned the piano on but walked a few steps away to find the keyboard piano handbook and some primary songs he could learn and show his parents before leaving. While rummaging through the cabinets, she heard one of the piano keys.
“Hey kid, don’t touch yet. Let me find the sheets so you can learn your first song!” she assured him, still not looking at him but deep into the drawers and cabinets, searching for the needed materials. Suddenly, she heard the symphonies of Für Elise coming from the piano. She remembered that the newer pianos could play songs chosen from song selection buttons on the side of the piano, so she did not look back to reprimand the kid again. However, the music stopped halfway and restarted. This was something that the piano was not set to do.
After a few minutes of looking for the sheets, she looked back at the kid and noticed his hands were accurately positioned on the piano keys. She thought it was a coincidence until the song started to play again. It was him the entire time.
Julie froze. She had never had this happen while working at Jane’s. Instead of interrogating him immediately, she silently sat beside him and watched him continue playing.
Fifteen minutes go by, and he’s still playing the piano, but this time, he’s playing different classical songs from Beethoven.
“Well, I think I should invite your parents over so they can see how awesome you did today!” she said, awaiting his response. He didn’t break concentration from the piano and did not acknowledge her. She opened the door slightly and called his parents over. They grabbed their belongings and headed over with excitement on their faces. As they entered the room, his mother patted her son’s back.
“How did you like it, Thomas?”
He smiled at her but did not say a thing. He pressed random keys on the keyboard and hyper-fixated on the flat keys.
“Hello? Thomas?” His mother says, concerned.
She let out a subtle laugh and realized something. “Oh, my god. I forgot to adjust it!” she said, looking at her husband and hinting to help her adjust his cochlear implant. Julie is left puzzled and doesn’t know what is going on at the moment.
“Uhh... is there anything I can help with?” asked Julie respectfully.
His mother crouched down and adjusted the volume sensitivity on the side of his cochlear implant. He got startled and grabbed his mother’s hand hard, signaling he did not want the auditory device to be turned on again.
“Thomas, next time, tell me or your instructor that you couldn’t hear. How did you practice today if you didn’t--”
Julie stepped in.
“He played on the piano for a while. I don’t know how, but he did. He played some pretty complicated songs that even I struggle with,” Julie said.
“Are you sure it was off?”
“Yes, it was off. I apologize; I wish I could have checked before coming here. Although, why were you not concerned about him when he didn’t respond?”
Julie froze. Her body suddenly became warm and uncomfortable. “I’m sorry, I thought he was just timid. I don’t want to make him or any other kid uncomfortable, so I just let them be.”
As they wrapped up the session, Thomas and his dad walked to the exit.
“Bye, Thomas! Hopefully, I’ll see you soon!” said Julie, waving and smiling at them.
Thomas waved back, and they walked out of the door. His mother stayed behind.
“How much do I owe you?” said the mother, standing before the counter and looking at
Julie.
“Oh please, this one was on me. I’m sorry about today.”
“It’s no big deal. But I stayed behind because I wanted to tell you something,” the mother
said, leaning closer to Julie. “My husband and I aren’t Deaf... We’ve been in and out of the research and classes on
how to parent a Deaf child. It’s not easy. Even though he has a good memory and recognition, we haven’t taught him any of that sign language. He can’t get confused when he goes to regular public school.”
The mother slipped a 20-dollar bill over the counter. Julie nodded, not knowing what to say. Julie felt his mother was a little off, but she didn’t question it once again.
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