Be kind to your ears

Yesterday was my first day back in front of the bands since the end of last semester.  I was not mentally prepared for the magnitude of the sound.  SO LOUD!  It stunned me, so last night I bought ear plugs to wear during the day.  Now I've always known that band was loud, but I felt quite immune to it because I have been in band since I was in 5th grade.  The volume was (is) just an everyday part of life.  But just like jackhammer operators use those special ear-protectors while operating the equipment, I should do the same.  I put the ear plugs in today during all music classes (so not my colorguard class) and once my students stop freaking out about it, things went back to normal.  It felt really strange, partially because my mom always told me not to stick anything in my ears, nose, eyes, etc when I was young, but I forced myself to wear them.  They asked why I was wearing earplugs and I simply said "I want to be able to hear when I get old."

Ears are not like muscles, they don't get physically stronger when you work them out.  So by me being constantly exposed to so many decibels all day, everyday, my physical ears are not improving.  If you've ever been to a loud concert and heard ringing in your ear afterward, that was your hearing dying.  There are these little hairlike things that process the intake of sound, but when there is too much sound they die, that's the ringing you ear.  Hearing is something we take for granted and because we don't (typically) lose it all at once, it often doesn't occur to us to take the precautions so that we can keep our ears operating well.

So be kind to your ears.