306. Hear

I was born with ugly ears. I used to love to lay on the couch with my head in my mom's lap. She would gently unfold the top of my ear over and over until I would fall asleep. When she was in medical school and had 36 hour shifts I found it difficult to sleep without her attention to my ears.

For years I thought she loved them with all this attention. I never knew they were ugly. Then one day as a preteen, when I was getting too big to fit on her lap she told me that I could have my ears fixed. I jumped up from my relaxed state, "Fixed?" Yes, fixed she repeated. I said, "Fixed? Like a dog?" At that moment I developed a self conscious about my funny looking ears that remains until this day. She tried to convince me for years to fix them, but even though they are ugly, they are mine.

When I was in graduate school I invented a story about the origin of my odd ears... When my parents fought loudly I would cover up my ears to try and drown out their yelling. One day they stuck.