SAM DREZIN BRINGS WONDER TO PCC

by Young Voices staff

Sam Drazin is truly a wonder. He joined PCC for our first Core Course of the summer to share his story and support PCC’s message of friendship and acceptance. Like the character Auggie Pullman from the critically acclaimed book Wonder, Sam was born with Treacher Collins syndrome, a condition that affects bone development and causes facial deformities. But rather than let this condition hold him back, Sam is using it to spread not only awareness of people like him, but also to spread a message of accepting everyone for who they are.

Sam’s journey has been marked by several surgeries, starting with five ear surgeries. These surgeries were necessary to reshape his outer ear so they would be proportional to the size of his face. Since his ear canal is not aligned with the structure of his inner ear, Sam has hearing difficulties; to cope with these, he wears a hearing aid attached to a headband. Unlike hearing aids that fit inside the ear, Sam’s--a device called an oscillator--vibrates the sound waves against the bones in his head, allowing the sound waves to bypass his ear canal. Sam explained that there were both negative and positive aspects of the oscillator; while it did not allow him to localize sound, he was able to turn it off when he was getting lectured at by his parents. Five PCC students were brought up on stage and were able to experience this unique way of hearing sound by trying on Sam’s oscillator.

After recounting other surgeries on his nose and jaw, Sam transitioned from his personal story to a broader message of living with disabilities. He explained that life after the surgeries could be isolating; friends at school gradually started to drift away in middle school and early high school. But changing schools allowed him the opportunity to regain his personal confidence and make new friends who were more accepting of his condition. Later surgeries made him feel more comfortable with himself and more willing to put himself out there socially.

Sam’s presentation concluded by allowing PCC students to connect his personal story to the broader theme of overcoming adversity. Near the end of his talk, he projected a quote from Wonder: “Everyone deserves a standing ovation because we all overcometh the world.” Sam Drezin’s message was one of acceptance for everyone despite their individual differences and hardships and was the perfect inaugural Core Course to describe the true meaning of PCC’s “Be A Friend” theme.