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 DEAF IN BOTH EARS, DALLAS COWBOYS CHEERLEADER CHRISTINA MURPHY CREATES HER OWN BEAT
Every football season there’s a rookie who beats the odds to make the squad and overcomes adversity to accomplish a dream of spending Sundays at Texas Stadium performing in front of 65,000 fans and millions more watching on television. One such remarkable story took place this past season. But the person who conquered obstacles and completed her rookie season is not a football player. She is a Dallas Cowboys Cheerleader, one of “America’s Sweethearts”. Her name is Christina Murphy, a lovely and talented young woman who happens to be a phenomenal dancer. The cheerleading squad is full of beautiful women who can dance. But Christina’s story is special…. Christina is profoundly deaf in both ears. She cannot hear the music. She has never heard the sound of her own voice. I first met Christina last April during Dallas Cowboys Cheerleader auditions. She was auditioning for the first time. It’s very difficult for a person to make the DCC squad in her first year of auditions. But Christina was exceptional and she was unanimously selected by all judges -- not because she was deaf – because she deserved to be on the squad. We were proud that she would represent “America’s Team”. Please take a few moments to share Christina’s story in this Question & Answer session. How can you dance so beautifully when you can’t hear the music? CHRISTINA: I can hear the beat just a little bit but not the same as everybody else. I don’t hear the words, I just hear some of the beat, so I kind of use my own beat inside my head. Sometimes I can feel the vibrations, but it depends on how loud it is. In the stadium, the stereo speaker is over our heads and it’s not on the floor. Sometimes it’s loud enough, but if it’s too loud, I can’t hear it either. So I’m visual in terms of taking cues from the cheerleaders around me. I watch the people in front of me, plus I have a natural instinct of knowing when to start and as long as I’m in the same beat as everyone else, I can do it. It takes practice with some of the music. At night, I go to bed with my iPod on and I listen to all the songs just in case my hearing aids go out or something goes wrong, I still have the beat in my head. I use dancing as something I love to do and I’m very passionate about it because I create my own stories. I tried out for the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders because it was something I thought I could challenge myself with. It’s something I’ve always wanted to do because I’ve always looked up to these girls. With my hearing impairment, I wanted to see how far I could go with my life. Dancing is just something that makes me feel like I belong in the hearing world. That’s why I wanted to experience being a Dallas Cowboys Cheerleader. I just started dancing my sophomore year of HS. I was on the South Grand Prairie Cheyanne drill team. It’s really funny because back then they did a story on me and I mentioned that I wanted to be a Dallas Cowboys Cheerleader. But everybody was just kind of like, ‘Oh, that’s cool to dream’. I don’t think they really believed I could do it. Have you been hearing impaired since birth? I have been profoundly deaf in my right ear since birth and now I’m also profoundly deaf in my left ear. I’ve been hit in the head several times in my life and it’s increasingly getting worse. In my right ear, I can’t hear anything even with a hearing aid on. There’s no use for it. You speak so clearly and are very easy to understand. Did you have extensive speech therapy? I was put into a school called Callier’s when I was six weeks old. That helped me be around other deaf kids and learn to talk. And every word that I’ve ever learned, my mother (Linda) has taught me and I’m working with them in school. She later put me in a public school and she would have to pre-teach and post-teach me every lesson before it was actually given in the class so that I could keep up with everybody else. In school, did other kids or adults make fun of your hearing impairment? People sometimes didn’t believe that I was deaf because I have always functioned as a hearing person. That was my goal in my life: treat me like a hearing person, don’t treat me like a deaf person. I can do everything else just like everybody else. But people always told me that I wasn’t going to be able to graduate high school or some of them would make fun of my words because you can hear some of my nasal words. Kids used to make fun of the way I talk and I’ve always had to ignore them and move on. That’s what helped make me the person I am today because I want to be in the hearing world and want people to know that we can do anything we want. Just because you’re deaf doesn’t mean you’re stupid and you can’t do anything. But it is hard because there is no other deaf person around and sometimes I feel lonely in my own world. But the closer I’m getting with everybody, it’s making me happier. Your family must have been very supportive.
My mom & dad have always been behind me in anything I’ve ever wanted to do. And they never doubt anything so as long as I said I wanted to be a DCC, my mom always helped me believe it’s something I could do. I think they’re proud that I’m doing what’s expected of me and that I can be a role model to other people and show that they can’t give up. I’m hard on myself and sometimes I feel like I’m never going to get where I want to be, but as long as I keep pushing, it shows me that I can. I’ve already had several hard times in the DCC process already and just being here every single day is a struggle, but I love it. I need that challenge. Could you share the story of your meeting with another famous hearing-impaired woman? When I was in 3rd grade I was able to meet Heather Whitestone and she was Miss America 1995. I realized that she was deaf. After I met her I learned her story a few months later and truly understood what she was doing. For me to know that she had overcome her disability to become Miss America made me realize that I, too, could do anything I want. Just trying to follow her footsteps in life is something I’ve been doing. She loves dancing but I didn’t know what dancing was until my sophomore year. When I read her book recently I realized that she & I view dancing the same way. She uses it to worship God, and that kind of is my way, too. That’s what God has given me and that’s my way of communicating with people is by dancing. You don’t have to talk when you’re dancing. I used to be petrified of talking in front of people because I don’t know the sound of my own voice. People tell me that I sound like a regular person, but it’s kind of hard for me to take that in part two
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