2 000 People

I lost my voice. I can't speak at all; mimics of sound and halves of syllables arise in place of words. As most of my readers know, I'm sure, I'm fluent in sign language, in ASL. So when my voice decided to take a vacation, my reaction to not hearing my own voice was to let my hands take over. When no one could hear me, I slipped into the warmth of sign. Unfortunately, very few people I know also know sign. No one could hear me and no one could understand me. Both versions of my speech were useless.
Over the course of the past few days, I've gotten a whole new appreciation of what it means to be isolated.
I'm not saying that the deaf are doomed to loneliness and lack of communication, that's not what I mean at all. What I mean is when I go on exchange next year this is what I'll feel. French, very rapid French, will surround me and I'll be overwhelmed. I'll be able to communicate maybe 10% of what I want to say because I won't have the ability to speak as well as people around me can.
Will I avoid this odd loneliness? Will I understand their speech quickly? Will I comprehend it all soon enough? Will I be able to talk back, have my voice "healed" in a weekend?
I certainly hope so, but I won't know for sure.
But what I did this weekend was huge. Saturday night I performed Owl City's Fireflies in ASL in front of 2 000 people. I was so nervous I would make a mistake or people would think it was too weird. I was on this huge stage with this amazingly loud and perfect sound system and automated gels on each of the ellipses. But the music started and I heard people singing along, and I was practically dancing I was so into it.
After the show (and after 2 000 people cheered for me when I finished), a person from the crowd approached me, and began signing to me. She herself had a degree in Deaf Ed. and was so thrilled by my initiative in sign. She complimented me on my "excellent understanding of ASL syntax". Apparently, it's a hard concept to learn.
And for the rest of the night after the show, people kept telling me how awesome they thought it was. So many of them wanted to learn ASL because of it.
And so many of them made me feel so proud.