![\"#BearsOfBaylor\"](\"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/bob-familydeaf-aug17.jpg\")
<\/p>\n“My whole family is Deaf. My parents, my twin sister and some extended family members are all Deaf. I grew up in a home where American Sign Language was my first language. I\u2019m a social work major, because I\u2019ve seen oppression on a lot of different levels, and I\u2019ve seen people discount my family just because they couldn\u2019t hear. I’m really into helping people who feel like they don\u2019t have a voice find their voice and make them heard.<\/p>\n
“I\u2019m not used to yelling someone\u2019s name across a house. I\u2019m very much a look-at-someone type of person. I don\u2019t talk on the phone often because I\u2019m so used to texting or Facetiming and signing with my family. It\u2019s funny, other people would consider me the normal one in my family, but in reality, I was the different one. I was the only one in my household who could hear.<\/p>\n
“A lot of people don\u2019t consider Deaf culture to be its own culture or language, but if you look at the definition of both of those things, it has all of those things that classify it as a language and a culture. Really embrace it. If you just want to learn the alphabet, Deaf people love it. They want to know you want to communicate with them.”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n