For those of us who watched "Hannah Montana," we witnessed a fictional character get torn between being Miley Cyrus, a high school teenager and Hannah Montana, a rock star. Having almost been quite a few too many times and struggling to maintain her secret, Miley finally learned that there are sacrifices to maintaining both roles. In the big finale, "The Hannah Montana Movie," she revealed herself as Hannah Montana. Juggling two parts of yourself as well as everything else life throws your way can get tiring and hectic.

I call it being a hybrid (It sounds supernatural, which makes it sound cooler).

People would probably call this being two-faced, but don’t believe it. There are several occasions where having two sides is required. For example, when you get a job you have to maintain an atmosphere of professionalism, but when you’re home, you are more relaxed. It’s different for everyone, which makes us one unique and awesome sets of hybrids.

In fact, my lines have always been blurred. I hadn’t grown up like everyone else I knew. When I was two years old, I was diagnosed with moderate to severe bilateral hearing loss (in other words, I was hearing impaired in both ears). At two years old, there’s not much that’s understandable except to eat, sleep and cry. My mom wanted the best for me and nothing less. So I later got my first set of hearing aids. I went to preschool and continued onto elementary school, high school and now to my senior year of college. There were definitely struggles as I grew up. Because I wasn’t completely deaf, I didn’t need to learn sign language, but I wasn’t able to fully hear either. Here’s where I realized that the lines blurred for me: I didn’t belong with either the hearing or the deaf, I was stuck in the middle. For a while, I felt lost because I was never fully immersed into one community. Being immersed in one community meant that I would have been subjected to one way of living. However, I came to the realization that I didn’t need to be isolated to one community. I could enjoy both. As Hannah Montana said in her first song, “I got the best of both worlds.” I have my pros and cons in being a hybrid of both worlds, but that’s what makes it worth it. There are people out there who have doubted my progress, but I am here and thriving.

Most of the time, it gets hard to keep the lines from becoming blurred. It’s okay when the line does become blurred because no matter how many sides you have, it’s who you are and what makes you the person you are. Don’t be ashamed of it; be the best hybrid that you want to see in the world. Take advantage and shout, “I got the best of both worlds!”