Happy 2nd Birthday to MEEEEEEEEEE (DG)

Guess what?

I forgot my own birthday!

Deafinitely Girly's second birthday to be precise!

It was on Friday, but I was so flustered from sleeping in, I forgot and nattered on about Thankful Friday instead. But then, I had a lovely comment from a reader who reminded me it was my birthday and also said great things about my blog!

*big grin

Looking back, it's hard to believe this of started two years ago, and that I've more or less blogged every week day since 23 April 2008 – give or take hospital visits, hangovers and holidays.

What on earth have I had to say?

Let's have a review shall we!

Well, in the beginning I addressed my past. From going deaf to boy struggles – I recounted the stories that had shaped me, blown my embarrassment factor out of the water and given me something to say in the first place.

Then where was my Down-On-The-BBC era, which lasted a long time and to be fair, was quite justified as the subtitles are often rubbish during important things like the news and Top Gear.

In these two years I've had over 18,000 hits and more if you count the ones through Deaf Read that don't register on my hit counter.

I've also got a column in Hearing Times, which I love writing, and my Superdrugloves.com blog, which has caused my make-up bag to double in size since last summer when I won the competition to be the Ultimate Summer Insider, and has seen me jet of to Barcelona on an amazing 5-star weekend away with London Aunt.

But perhaps the biggest change is me. I feel older and wiser, more proactive about my deafness – ready to fight the battles worth fighting and quietly ignore the ones I’ll never win. I've come to learn over the last two years that some people are not worth the hassle and some people are more than worth the hassle. I now know that some people will never learn about my deafness and some people will actually know more than me, teaching me in their own unique way how to do more than just ‘get by’ and instead get out there and grab every opportunity that arises.

Deafinitely Girly has put me in touch with amazing people from all over the world and reconnected me with people from my past.

But most importantly, she's helped me be me. To get it all out, and put fingers to keyboard about what I'm really thinking. It’s amazingly therapeutic, and when I have sad, bad or mad days, the support that comes flooding in really is overwhelming.

Just last night, I was watching a recording of Young Musician of the Year. It was the strings final and as a kid, I always used to watch this with The Rents. But this time around, I couldn’t hear anything. Nada – not a pip, squeak or scrape for most of the performances, with the exception of some low bits from the harpists.

Now pre-DG, I wouldn’t have known how to deal with this and would have probably felt rather sad for the remainder of the evening. But last night, I simply fast-forwarded the bits I couldn’t hear and enjoyed the interviews with the performers instead.

I dealt with it in a positive manner, and not only got on with it, but enjoyed it, too, rather than dwelling on what I couldn’t have.

And that’s what I’ve learnt from DG in the last two years – she’s made me happy to be me.

Which, really, can only be a good thing.

Now, it’s time to bake that birthday cake I think!