Graduation Time—A Time to Celebrate

June is a time to celebrate the accomplishments of our young people.  Graduating from high school and college are monumental.  It a huge accomplishment and we need to be proud and celebrate with them.  Graduations are a celebration of families that support their young people through school.

This year my husband and I joined other parents to participate in and watch the graduation ceremony at the University of Maine, Farmington.  Our son
was graduating from college.  He has worked long and hard to earn his Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree.  It definitely was a feeling of great joy and relief.  I was surprised at my strong emotions of pride.  Pride that he was growing independent and becoming an adult. 

During our celebration lunch, our son mentioned that he thinks he has lost some hearing!  He wanted to remember to mention it to me so he could arrange a hearing test when he came home to visit.  When I asked him what he meant he reminded me that he has attended a number of concerts.  He has also been to clubs with loud music playing.  He was sure his hearing had been damaged.

What a wake-up call to me, the professional.  I had neglected to make my own son custom hearing protection, even though I knew he was a typical college student who attended loud concerts.  Custom ear protection costs a couple of hundred dollars.  But, what is that compared to the college bills I had been paying.  And, what is a couple hundred dollars to protect my son’s hearing.  Hearing aids
are much more expensive.

Another short coming of mine is that I didn’t test my son’s hearing before he went to college.  That would have been a great time to begin the baseline audiograms. When he was in grammar school and was having ear infections he had a number of hearing tests.  But, I neglected to give him a hearing test prior to college and remind him the dangers of loud concerts and clubs.  I would have made custom hearing protection for him. 

I am very proud that he has earned his degree.  I am proud that he is self-aware enough to realize he may have lost some hearing.  Now, I need to be a
professional, and not a proud parent and give him that hearing test, and make
custom hearing protection for him.