By: Tommy Druen
Guest Columnist
We’ve all been there. You’re in a public restroom and you go to dry your hands under an automatic dryer. The thing roars to life like a jet engine and, in the minute you stand there moving your hands, you wonder if your eardrums are going to survive the experience. You don’t know if you’re still in a restroom or suddenly in a Maxell tape commercial.
It’s annoying, sure. But it’s one of those minor irritations we all just accept without question. I’ve been doing it for decades. Never once did I think to complain or investigate or do anything but grimace and wait for it to be over. That’s what we do, right? We accept the world as it is, right or wrong, and move on with our lives.
Unless you’re Nora Keegan.
Back in 2015, Nora was a fifth grader in Calgary, Canada. Every time she used the hand dryer at her school, her ears would ring afterward. She noticed something else too. Her classmates were covering their ears when the machine kicked on. Even if they had noticed, most kids would have shrugged this off. Nora decided to do something about it.
With the science fair approaching, Nora grabbed a decibel meter and convinced her parents to drive her to public restrooms around Calgary. You can picture this nine-year-old girl in a bathroom holding what looks like a radar gun, measuring the noise at each dryer. She steps up to each dryer like an OSHA inspector on a mission, with adults glancing over trying to figure out what she’s doing.
She measured the noise at 18 inches, the industry standard distance. Then she measured again at 12 inches, because she wisely knew that, because of shorter arms, kids would have to stand closer to reach the dryer.
What she found was alarming. Many of these hand dryers registered over 100 decibels. To put that in perspective, that’s louder than a lawnmower and almost the same as a leaf blower. Health experts consistently say that adults should wear hearing protection when around anything over 85 decibels to prevent hearing loss. And that’s for adults, not children with developing ears.
Nora presented her findings at the science fair. She got third place. Most people would have been disheartened and moved on to some other facet of their life. Not Nora. She buckled down on the topic.
The next year, she presented further findings and won first place at the science fair. By 7th grade, she was experimenting with air filters to create mufflers for the machines. At 13, her research was published in Paediatrics and Child Health, a legitimate scientific journal. Then Dyson came calling. She met with their acoustic engineers to discuss quieter hand dryer designs. All before she even started high school!
Many of us think we can’t do anything special or make a difference because we weren’t born with the right genetics. Talent is rare, yes. But for some things, a lack of talent can be overcome with determination. Determination isn’t genetic. You don’t have to inherit it. Every single one of us already has it. The only question is whether we’re willing to use it. Most of us don’t. We’re too busy accepting loud hand dryers and a thousand other irritating things we’ve decided are just the way the world is and will remain.
Nora had determination, and that’s what changed everything. Not some rare gift she was born with. Just the stubborn refusal to accept that things had to stay the way they are.
There’s a quote from Edward Everett Hale that I love. “I am only one, but I am one. I cannot do everything, but I can do something.”
That’s Nora Keegan. She was one person, and a young one at that. But she was determined to do something, and she did it.
Look around your community this week. There’s probably a Nora Keegan already there, asking questions the rest of are scared or embarrassed to ask. Pay attention to them. Listen to what they’re noticing. Encourage them. Support them. Because that’s the person who’s going to fix something we’ve all been accepting for far too long, something that shouldn’t be the way it is in the first place.
And if you can’t find that person? If you look around and don’t see anyone willing to ask those hard questions or challenge what seems universally accepted? Well, maybe it’s supposed to be you.
