A journey of a thousand miles

Aww, it went great, it was so much fun and the time flew by. Some of it was review (numbers, manners, the alphabet) but I learned a lot of new stuff already, for example colours. (Yes, they are hard to remember. So are names for food and names of places. They're the hardest signs to learn because unlike many signs you can't relate them to an action or, in the case of colours and places, a physical object.)

I am on a listserve for late-deafened adults and don't speak up, I just lurk and listen. It's all too intimidating and makes me so aware I am such a baby to this process. I read people saying, "I've been signing for three years and I am finally getting the hang of it... I understood quite a lot of what the ASL interpreter was saying at the conference!" and I just think, ugh, I have so far to go on this journey! And yet if I don't start there will never be a "three years..." Even if (in sh'allah!) I get the implant, I am determined to use "total communication" - sign, speechreading and hearing - because I know it is not a fail-proof technology.

I had read and heard the Chinese proverb "A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step" so often it had become a complete cliche to me. Not anymore. I really understand what it means now.

So I keep stepping.

ronnie