It's been almost a year since I started writing for Evening News and I have loved every single moment of it.

It has proved to be a challenge to me to write about the several illnesses that have inflicted themselves onto me, but recently a friend remarked to me that I have never quite written in depth about one thing that has not been inflicted onto me in recent years but rather, held my hands, or should I say, my ears since my birth.

However, deafness isn't an illness but an identity and a culture so I thought to myself: 'What's the point in writing about deafness?'

Nonetheless, when an old friend of mine got in touch with me and asked me to write an article about her fundraising for a charity called National Deaf Children Society, it gave me a purpose to write about my soundless world.

Yet I need to tell you my story before I encourage you all to help this remarkable and incredible woman raise money for a wonderful, worthy and welcoming charity that has helped so many families and most importantly of all, the deaf children who are struggling to come to terms with their deafness.

'Don't let it defeat your life's purpose'

As most of you know, I have been profoundly deaf for over 20 years.

Before me, my parents were both profoundly deaf themselves, so that was an advantage for me in many ways – they taught me so many life lessons, such as being proud of who you are and to never let deafness defeat the purpose of your life, which is to live life to the full as stars in the breezy, beautiful and bright universe.

I also learned how to adapt to the hearing environment and to blend in like sweat in a bucket of water.

Regardless of that, however, I was always reminded and taught to retain my deaf identity and to embrace my culture, such as going to deaf social clubs and interacting with other deaf people, even if they were strangers.

I would stare in awe as deaf people signed to the speed of a Ferrari, yet the other people would understand but as I was still a naive child, I couldn't catch anything. Ironically, it's now them who tell me to slow down when I sign to them!

'I wished I could hear voices'

Nevertheless, at some points in my life, I had some struggles with my deafness – I resented it, I rejected it and I refused to face reality. It was a curse some days, a gift other days.

I accepted who I was most of the time when I looked in the mirror, but there were very dark days when I wished openly that I could hear voices, to be able to understand people and to be able to speak clearly instead of my monotone voice.

I cried, I flew into a rage and I screamed yet my hearing never came. I looked at other people and wished I could be in their place. I craved the feeling of sound, vibrating through my skull like ink through a printer.

Deafness isn't an illness like diabetes or a battle like ME; it's a way of viewing the world differently.

Some people view it as an awful, devastating and cursed world, some view it through rose-tinted glasses but for deaf people, most of them anyway, and we view it as half of a world.

We live in two different worlds – one is where we speak, behave and conform to society values and the other is where conforming doesn't exist – we can speak, sign, behave, joke, laugh and bond like no other culture.

So many things, such as our love of British Sign Language and our infamous passion for partying until we're in our 80s sets us apart from normal society, but sometimes it can be overwhelming and like tortoises, we go back into our shells and into the normal world.

•Laura is a 19-year-old health writer. This column is brought to you in association with Cinema City Norwich.