I started CI Project with one question:
“What cochlear implant is meant to be in my life?”
We all may be using the same cochlear implant technology. Yet, our experience living with it can vary across a wide spectrum. However, there’s one thing for sure – cochlear implant should enable us to live life as we want it to be. What does that look like? While it may look different for each of us, I saw a glimpse of it in a Ricky Alfred, a 24-year-old cochlear implant user from Indonesia.
During the day, Ricky works as a Digital Marketing Executive. Outside of work, he’s an avid road cyclist.
Ricky was born in 1997. His parents learned about his hearing loss when he was 20 months old. But it was a year later, after his parents gathered a sufficient fund to cover the costs, Ricky was implanted in Singapore. They remained in Singapore for four months, during which Ricky underwent the implantation surgery, activation of the implant and speech therapy sessions.
Upon returning to Indonesia, Ricky’s parents diligently fostered his speech and language development. He enrolled in mainstream schools right from day one of his school life. He described his school life as mostly pleasant. There were no major bully incidents besides a less-than-sensible tease about his hearing loss by one of his schoolmates in one instance.
He later attended a private Christian university in Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia and his hometown. He graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Business Management.
Ricky’s transition to the workplace bore a similar note. In the interview for his first job, he neither hid his hearing loss nor revealed it upfront. It was nearing the end of the interview that the interviewer noticed his cochlear implant speech processor on his left ear, which he then explained. He later got the job offer. He is able to function and perform like any of his hearing colleagues thanks to the advanced speech processor technology.
Ricky’s message for everyone reading this is that if you’re feeling down because of your hearing loss. That’s okay. But he hopes his story is a testament that, with proper support, we could still do anything we want.
Interviewer’s (Peng) note
Ricky is the kind of self-assured young man that many cochlear implant parents would hope their children grow up to be. A strong support system is foundational in this matter. A telling example of this support system is that his parents did not limit, but encouraged, him to participate in various sports. As you could see in the photo below, Ricky donned his CI speech processor encased in a waterproof kit. That allays any fear that the sweat might cause damage to the device.
CI speech processor encased in a waterproof kit on Ricky’s left ear.
Speaking from a risk-averse point of view, having a cochlear implant is a pretty convincing reason to shrink back from trying new things. Yet, the 16 cochlear implant users I’ve interviewed have shown me again and again that we will want to review our decisions of not trying new things because of our CIs. We can all start with baby steps.
Road cycling? Yes.
Tennis? Yes. (Check out John Lui’s story)
Travel around the world as a TV show host? Yes. (Check out Alana’s story)
Practice audiology? Yes. (Check out Dr. Michelle Hu’s story)
Run a business? Yes. (Check out Richard Pocker’s, Ashlei Powell’s stories)
Publish a book? Yes. (Check out Karina Cotran’s story)
Work at a news publication? Yes. (Checkout Patrick DeHahn’s story)
What cochlear implant is meant to be in your life?
You could find more cochlear implant user stories here.
CI Project collects cochlear implant user stories. I’d like to invite you to join the private Facebook group. You’ll receive an update of each new story (about once a month) and will get to interact with the characters of each story there. I’m also looking for more cochlear implant user stories. I’d appreciate it if you could nominate a cochlear implant user (including yourself) for me to write a story about!
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