HEBBRONVILLE, Texas — From the drumline to the pitching mound, Kadence Trevino does it all, and she did it with no hand-outs.
"Diagnosed at the age of one or around that age with profound hearing loss," said Ed Trevino, Kadence's dad.
Kadence was given hearing aids before she or her classmates at the time could understand what they were for, which she says led to a series of getting picked on by other kids.
"Every day, they would ask me questions, like why do I wear it, like 'can you hear me?' and they were always messing with me, and they would take it off and they would pull it off me and ask, 'do you hear me?' and it was always something every day about it" said Kadence.
She swapped the hearing aids for cochlear implants, these allowed her to broaden her hearing and find her voice again. After four years of the new implants and school for deaf children:
"We felt like she was ready to come back and be mainstreamed here at our hometown," said Trevino.
But it wasn't a walk in the park.
"It was a little bit challenging because she was so used to communicating a lot through sign language that we worked on with her," he added.
Kadence never saw her journey as a sad story, but her own story of how she made it from point A to B and accepted it.
"Sometimes I always think the man upstairs has a plan for me and my future and just being happy with how I was born," said Kadence.
She plays softball, volleyball, runs track and is on the drumline; all while at the same time, she's inspiring others.
"This little girl," said Kadence, "she had seen me play and I didn't have a headband or anything to cover my earpiece and this little girl, she came up to me and said, 'hi are you deaf?' and I said 'yes and she showed me her hearing aid"
At 15 and doing it all, literally, there is no dream too far for Kadence to reach, something she said she can't help but thank her younger self for never giving up.
"I always think of my 7-year-old self, telling myself, 'I want to be this girl when I grow up, for Texas, Austin Texas Softball' and I always use that every day like when I am in a slump like pitching and hitting, I always think of my 7-year-old self," Kadence added.
She hopes by sharing her story, she'll inspire other kids who are like her to always move forward
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