with music appreciation after freshman year of college. I was wrong. In 2018, I suffered a catastrophic injury that left the hearing in my left ear damaged and the hearing in my right ear nonexistent. I had never planned on being a partially deaf person, although I should have. The National Institutes of Health says that more than 37 million Americans aged 18 and over report some trouble hearing, and the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health says the number will rise to by 2060. Hearing loss hurts far more than your communication with others. It’s linked to loneliness and depression, and a recent report in shows that if it happens in midlife, you’re at increased risk for dementia. Hearing loss is the quiet epidemic, and I can’t say I recommend being one of its victims. You struggle to make out what people are saying at parties.
