The Mystery of the Cleaning Thief

So here's a funny story. 

The other day I woke up in Barcelona. We've rented an apartment there for the summer. 

It's a lovely sunny day. Sunlight is streaming through the window, lighting up the entire bedroom. 

I check my phone. I have an audio message from my girlfriend Elise on Whatsapp. I listen on speakerphone, pressing the loudspeaker into my ear (that's my hack for when I'm not wearing My HAs) 

I respond, she responds. We go on for a while. 

I finally get up and step out of my bedroom. I don't have my hearing aids in yet. But it's ok. I'm alone in the flat. I can wear them later.

As I enter the hallway, I notice something fishy: there are lots of rubbish bins in the hallway that weren't here the day before. 

Somebody is in the flat! 

A thief? No, it can't be a thief because I've never met thieves who cleans. 

I run back into the bedroom, put some clothes on (I was naked!) and put my HAs in. 

I walk back to the kitchen where I meet Cintia. She's the cleaning lady and I had no idea she would come today. 

I introduce myself. We start chatting. She's been in the flat for two hours! 

I'd been sleeping and voice messaging in bed with my bedrooms doors open without knowing somebody was in the flat. I wasn't even wearing pyjamas. Hey, Barcelona is hot! 

How embarrassing. 

Or, is it? 

It's not my fault if I can hear very little without my hearing aids on. 

There's nothing to be ashamed of. 

But Cintia doesn't know that. She doesn't know that I'm partially deaf. 

She might think I'm really weird for carrying on doing my business while some stranger is in the same apartment with me. 

There was a time when I would have hesitated to explain the situation. I would have probably just avoided Cintia forever. And felt embarrassment because I wouldn't know what she thought of me. 

Nowadays though, I've been dealing with hearing loss consciously for quite a while so instead of leaving the situation unexplained and make room for potential misunderstanding, I tell Cintia: 

"Wow you've been here two hours? I didn't hear you at all because I am partially deaf and I can't hear well at all when I don't wear my hearing aids [point to and show hearing aids]. I'm wearing them now but I don't wear them when I'm sleeping" 

That was it. One sentence and everything was made crystal clear. No room for misunderstandings or awkwardness. 

Cintia didn't mind. 

We both had a laugh and drama was already over before it started. 

My younger self would have probably debated whether to say something about my hearing loss, then would have said nothing. And felt awkward or even ashamed. 

By getting it out quickly, I dealt with this mini problem and moved on with my day. 

So I told someone new about my hearing loss before 10AM. How about you? When was your last time you told anyone new? 

P.S. One more thing... if you want to learn more about how you can too transform your life and hear better with hearing loss then hop over to my website and make sure to sign up to my free newsletter!

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