Two years ago, Sacramento State student Justin Mullins didn’t think he’d be where he is today. What only seems like a short time ago, the 21-year-old was a mechanical engineering major and had dreams of becoming an astronaut for NASA. His plans changed when Mullins was losing his hearing.

Mullins suspects it was about a year before he had his hearing tested, though he’s not sure because it was a gradual decline.

Even his family was unaware that he was having trouble hearing, including his sister, Jenny.

“He kept it hidden for a while. We didn’t even know he was reading lips,” Jenny said.

Doctors are not sure how to explain Mullins’ sudden hearing loss, but one theory is that the many antibiotics from a childhood of sicknesses and ear infections might have been part of the cause.

Whatever the reason, the effect caused Mullins to lose 60 percent of his hearing in both ears. Though he has not lost his hearing completely, Mullins discovered that NASA would not allow him into the program because he did not have total hearing.

“It sucked. I was super, super in the dumps,” Mullins said of his reaction to the news.

Yet, as the old saying goes, when one door closes, another one opens. In Mullins’ case, the new door was perhaps one most people would not expect.

Mullins had been playing percussion music since he was in elementary school. Once he entered college, however, he started focusing on his schoolwork and did not play again for two years. Then, after he learned he could not work for NASA, he said that he used writing and playing music as a kind of therapy.

“Music was the only thing that made me happy,” Mullins said.

Despite being hard of hearing and not picking up an instrument in about two years, Mullins changed his major to music. Now, he is learning to excel in percussion instruments, including the marimba, xylophone and drums.

Mullins’ instrument favorite is the marimba. He practices barefoot, so he can feel the deep tones of the huge, xylophone-looking instrument. His marimba pieces have almost a techno feel, and with a rhythmic beat.

Outside class, he plays in a band called Shock Izzy and writes his own music and lyrics.

Those who know him are inspired by the how he has undertaken the alteration in his life.

“I’m so impressed that he has taken the challenge…dealing with the change in his life from being able to hear to becoming deaf,” Mela Bennet, a friend and graduate student said. Bennet is also hard of hearing, and met Mullins at a social event during Deaf Awareness Month

“Most people don’t cope well with a hearing loss and fight it with frustration and disconnection with their friends and loved ones,” she said.

Mullins admits that there are challenges that he faces that he did not have before: Learning to play music by feel rather than sound and trying to lip-read in noisy environments, for example.

Yet, he does not see these as limitations. Mullins is quick to point out that these are things not just he, but others who cannot hear or are hard of hearing have to adjust to.

“We’re totally capable of doing the same things as hearing people. We just have to go about it differently,” Mullins said.

When asked who inspires him, Mullins named two people. One is Evelyn Glennie, a solo percussionist who is also hard of hearing, because she learned to play music by feel – a skill Mullins is trying to learn.

The other is more personal: His whole family.

“It must have been hard seeing me go deaf and then getting into something like music ? but their complete support has given me the inspiration to do what makes him happy,” he said.

As for the future, one prospect Mullins is considering is teaching music to children who cannot hear.

“There’s no reason why they can’t learn music and have the same effects that it had on my life,” he said.

For those who know him, it isn’t the musical ability that they see as his best quality as a person.

“He’s caring. Even in our childhood, he put others before himself,” Jenny said.

Mullins said he has come to accept the fact that he’s losing his hearing, but doesn’t see it as an awful thing. By being introduced to the community who cannot hear, he said, he’s opening up to an entirely new world.

Mullins said he still manages to keep this positive outlook on life.

“Some times are frustrating, but who’s to say they aren’t going to be good ones?”

Kyrie Eberhart can be reached at [email protected].