From the day of birth to the day of death it is always one step at a time. The next journey. Every day is different for everybody every minute brings you a step closer to your next story.

How many people say that they can remember the day they where born or the day of their first words I mean I can barely remember what I had for dinner 2 nights ago. I know however that these things happened each one a new journey for me an obstacle in life to overcome, obstacles that helped shape me into the man I am today. But when you or I grow older the challenges start to become harder the journeys become longer the truth about the world that’s waiting out there becomes clearer.

At the age 4 I was diagnosed with hearing loss and received a hearing aid (despite being born with normal hearing). Of course to me though I can’t remember a time with normal hearing. I sometimes I get asked am I sad to have lost my hearing to know that I’ll probably never get it back to which I answer “No”, I mean how can I be sad for something I don’t remember how can I miss something I never even knew, hearing loss played a big part of who I am today and without it I may not be as compassionate or as friendly as I am today. Of course having hearing loss had its down sides, for every class I attended I sat in the front row silently or I would miss what the teacher said, for every time I went swimming I had to take out my hearing aids unable to hear anything or to have a conversation with my friends or family, but life goes on and a new journey came after the last, making the previous challenge dwarf in comparison.

One of the biggest journeys you can take is GCSE’s the test to see if everything you have ever learnt you remember to see if all your life spent in school hasn’t been for nothing. For me doing the GCSE’s was fine even the wait afterwards was fine in fact I welcomed the wait hoping it would go on forever. But alas that was not possible and the dreaded day came when I had to go in on that day and pick up that envelope an envelope that controls my future, an envelope that can either be the best or worst thing in my life. Was I worried of failure or disappointing my family to put it short and simple yes. I have never considered myself to be great in school in fact I have never excelled in any subjects and I was fine with that I never cared enough to try harder. My parents often told me my hearing stops me from doing as well as I could do. I never believed that of course even if I only had around 50% hearing in one ear, my action defines who I am and how I did in my GCSE’s not my hearing. And when preparation for GCSE’s came I knew the time for mucking about was over it was time for me to do one of my hardest journey yet. This was a time for me to prove to myself that I could do well and that my disability couldn’t stop me from achieving my dreams.

To my surprise I got the results I had wanted and so concluded another journey and a started to another, one in the form of A levels. Now I am half way through my A levels and I realise I look forward to finishing this journey and on to the next, for it was a philanthropist by the name of Anthony Robbins that said “The only impossible journey is the one you never begin”

By Jake Tewson