Born deaf, Jordan Levin runs a CrossFit affiliate and is a motivational speaker. Lon Wagner tells the story.
I am talking, on the phone, to Jordan Levin. Normal. Mundane, even.
When I emailed Jordan, I wasn’t sure how this would go, how we would do the interview. Maybe it’d have to be done through email. Or a chat window. Here’s the thing: Jordan Levin was born deaf. And he still is.
“Right now,” Jordan says, his voice sounding pretty normal after having traveled 700 miles from Michigan to my cell phone, “I am talking to you on my iPhone, and everything you say is showing up on the screen.”
This is just all so “normal,” I think. This is not about faking normal with an iPhone. It’s not being made normal through the technological advancement of hearing aids. It’s not about making do with sign language. Jordan became normal through the to-the-core stubbornness of his parents, through his own striving and persistence and insistence.
It took Jordan every minute, hour and day for many years, but eventually he broke down abnormal. He pinned disabled to the mat.
Jordan Levin earned normal.