Get your Kleenexes ready, because nothing will prepare you for the sheer emotion of watching a courageous man, deaf since birth, hear for the first time.

The man, Steven M. F. Austin, was born with an inner-ear disorder that forced him to go through life without ever hearing music, the voices of loved ones, or the sweet sound of asses being whipped.

Austin has spent decades hollering “WHAT?!” when trying to communicate with others, in the faint hope that he might hear people if they would just speak up.

“Mr. Austin was born stone-cold deaf,” said Dr. Bob Ponovich, and audiologist who outfitted Austin with a pair of 3.16-volt cochlear implants this week.

When the devices were switched on and Austin heard the voice of a woman named Paige (surname unknown) for the first time, he was so emotional that he was rendered speechless.

Click the image below to watch his emotional reaction.

 

Moments later, Austin was moved to tears by the sound of two beer cans being smashed together overhead.