Tonight I had a 30+ minute post-practice chat with the College Bowl coach. He wanted me to know that if I become a “regular” student, I WILL be on the team going to New Orleans in July for the competition. He immediately asked if A would come too, so apparently I would get my own room, though he did say only my trip would be paid for.

He said that after seeing me in the past two practices, he can tell I definitely belong on the team. It takes both knowledge and enthusiasm, and I guess I have both. He’s already communicated with the National Association for the Deaf to ask about a hypothetical situation wherein a hearing student becomes a regular status student, and they said it would be okay for me to be on the team as long as I was regular status at Gallaudet. All I need for that is the audiogram and the audiologist’s letter certifying that the hearing loss is permanent.

We chatted about other things too, it was a really nice conversation and he treated me as an equal rather than “just a student” which was cool.

Dr. Mom, my favorite teacher, sent me an email today. She said she had been thinking about the discussion in yesterday’s Sex & Gender class, and she worried that I felt excluded or marginalized by the discussion because we focused only on straight couples. She saw me before I had a chance to reply, so she asked me about it again! I said we were talking about the differences between men and women, so of course it was natural that we would talk about straight couples, and I was fine with it! I made sure she knew I thought she was an absolute sweetheart for sending me that note.