I'm not Dutch myself, but I am deaf.
I know what it's like to grow up in a hearing world and to go to a hearing school.
I went to a regular school myself, so I know what it's like to be in a classroom with hearing children.
I was often alone. I had some contact with my interpreter, but it was very lonely.
A lot of people don't understand that experience. You have to work really hard to communicate and hang out with others.
You don't feel relaxed and you don't feel at home.
Gallaudet does make me feel that way. The people here share those experiences.
I could work somewhere else. I have my PhD and I have the necessary skills.
But I chose to work here, in the end.
Not just because the right people work here, and it's a good department, but because it's accessible, most of all.
I can communicate with anyone using sign language.
Otherwise I'd have to bring in an interpreter to translate everything. Now I can just be who I am.
I also went to a hearing university in California and they use interpreters.
That's fine, of course, and the people were very kind. But I always felt like I was lagging behind the rest.
But the first year at Gallaudet, I was actually incredibly involved and I wanted to give my opinion about everything.
The teachers told me I was very open-hearted.
But well, I never got the chance to be like that growing up.
I was always just seeing what happened and was too late to actually contribute myself.
Of course, you can go to a hearing university, and the teachers and the level of education there are great...
...but you don't get the same comfortable sense of home.