A Boy Named Broccoli

John Lennon once said, “Life is what happens while you are busy making other plans.” As I look back at what I have written for this memoir, A Boy Named Broccoli, I see this paradox repeating throughout. For example, during my teen years, Music was a huge part of my life – I wrote my own scores, I played the guitar, and I traveled in the singing group, Up With People. Although, I kept asking myself, what am I going to do with the rest of my life? What really matters? Then, one fateful day in 1977, I met and conversed with my first deaf student and threw every other career idea out the window. I decided I would become a Teacher of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing.

Deafness? Sign language? Interpreting? What did I know about these? I’d thought. Yet, meeting and connecting with that young student had changed how I thought about the world and eventually changed who I am. Now, after 39 years as a Teacher of Deaf and Hard of Hearing, I still have passion for my work, and this work can often bring me to tears of happiness. I love my students, and I love that they have given me permission to share their stories—both the tough times and those that made me smile.