I met a superhero today.

I met a superhero today and it was absolutely inspirational. It was a normal Wednesday evening; nothing too exciting as I wrapped things up at my school campus and was ready to head home for the day. I then decided to get some supplies at a Walmart close by. At the end of my rather brief shopping, I ordered an Uber to go home which was going to arrive in about ten minutes (which I considered way too much time to wait as I was already standing outside but I waited anyway).

I decided to spend the time listening to some music and tapping through my phone and after about nine minutes that seemed to go by a little faster than I had expected, there he was- my Uber driver in his silver KIA Rio. I hopped in and we exchanged pleasantries. He asked about how my day had been (as most Uber drivers I had ridden with usually did as an icebreaker). I responded and the conversation went on from one topic to another; ranging from the state of healthcare in the US to his family’s long military tradition which he had to opt out of due to his disability. Then my attention was drawn to a device behind his right ear that looked a lot like a Bluetooth audio headphone. I had noticed his cochlear implant as I hopped in earlier as well as his accent which he said a lot of people mistook to be Canadian.

This is where things got interesting. He told me about how he lived for a long time being deaf and how he had to come to a point where he had to deliberately find the humor in any tough situation he was going through. He said he knew he had a choice between letting his ‘disability’ hold him back or finding a way to laugh through it all. He said he saw his condition not as a disability but instead, a super ability. He said: “Imagine being in this noisy and distracting world and having to endure all the endless noise. Well, I can decide to tune it all out whenever I want. Imagine being in an annoying conversation with a very obnoxious person. I can basically hit a mute button behind my ear without them even noticing. See? Superpower, not disability”. He spoke of how he applies it to other areas in his life too and how it has helped him get by.

I learned something profound today. Tough situations we find ourselves dealing with might not be issues to laugh about but worry would only keep us stuck in the same position while a little humor, on the other hand, helps us through it with a whole new perspective. We reached my destination and he left me with a rather funny but also thought-provoking saying about marriage which could also be applied in life; “A marriage with humor would last a lifetime. A marriage without humor would only seem to last a lifetime”. I stepped out smiling. That was certainly an Uber ride worth remembering.