Though Deaf and Blind, I Found Security/AS TOLD BY JANICE ADAMS

Move to Washington D.C.

Gallaudet University in Washington D.C.,the world's only liberal arts college forth deaf, had specialized services for deaf-blind students. I transferred there and graduated with honors in 1979. Once again, I felt good to be able to succeed academically.

Yet, still I felt socially isolated from my peers. Robbed by my visual loss, I had learned sign language just in time to start to feel as though I belonged to a group, the Deaf community. The sign language I use is the same as the one other deaf people use.  However, because  I must put my hands on theirs to understand them, some deaf people avoided me out of awkwardness. I began to wonder if I would ever be truly accepted by any group of people.

 Search for True Religion

Religion had not provided me with comfort  while I was growing up. And in college, even though I took a course in religion. I never received answers to my many questions. After graduating college, I continued to look for answers. During this time I was unhappy with my relationships, so I began to pray to God for his guidance.

In 1981, I moved back to Gallaudet University to get my master's degree in rehabilitation counseling. I continued to pray for help to find the right church. Several people offered to take me to their churches, but for one reason or another, they did not follow through. Then I met Bill, who could hear normally and was also in graduate school.  He discovered, quite by chance, that I shared his interest in the Bible, and he told me that he was learning all kinds of amazing things from Jehovah's Witnesses.

My first impression was that Jehovah's Witnesses were some Jewish cult, an opinion that I found to be common to many deaf people.  Bill assured me that they were not, and he said that the best way to find about them would be to attend one of their meetings. I really did not want to go, but I remembered my prayer. I reluctantly agreed, on the condition that we sit in the back row so that we could escape if they put any pressure on us.

Next time: Though Deaf and Blind, I Found Security/AS TOLD BY JANICE ADAMS -I Felt Right at Home

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