Shut Up

I didn't talk for over 24 hours straight. I did not, use my vocal cords, between 12am Thursday, February 28, and 8pm Friday, March 1. I didn't sing along to any music, I barely opened my mouth, and yes, I did go to school. This post serendipitously coheres with my last post, Discipline, and definitely isn't a reason for me doing this "experiment" this week(it was a factor). We're gonna talk about why I decided to do this, how my day went, and what I was reminded of while doing this.

On Monday this week, while sitting in class being annoying, a friend of mine (whom I respect greatly), turned around after I made a horrible joke and said, "shut up." I went on to speak less in his presence, and he later apologized saying he was having a bad day—though no apology was necessary, he was right, and I didn't take offense, or think less of him. However, he had already sparked an idea in my head: what if I don't talk for a day? I wondered if my vocal cords would be ok, and honestly no idea what would happen, or if I could even do it. That question turned into me telling myself that'd be a wonderful discipline practice, and help me with my annoying habit of talking too much. I then decided on Thursday, I would go to school and come home, and from when I woke up to when I went to sleep, I wouldn't use my vocal cords.

I really like music. . . a lot. I listen to music for at least nine hours a day, no exaggeration. I have also come to sing along with the music I listen to. I also like talking to people, communicating, but on Thursday, all of it went down the drain. I woke up, reminding myself that I couldn't speak that day, and went to school. The previous day, I told a few people that I wouldn't be speaking that day, knowing they'd loudly announce it to the class, and they did so, saving me the need of using 'yes' 'no' nods to explain. I went through the day, kept writing to communicate at a minimum, and my texts were—mostly—diluted to pictures (including emojis) and small phrases. The hardest part, however, was definitely not singing along to the music, and then saying I wouldn't lip sync to it either. I did successfully make it through the day, and was proud that I got through it.

I'm going to try keeping this paragraph short, as it's a post I've been wanting to do for awhile now, and it connects to another prior post, Ego. While going through the day, I thought about this post, I thought about how I'd talk about it with others, and recalled some psychological tendencies. The spotlight effect, stating that we think people care about us much more than they really do; this exercise definitely helped solidify in my mind that people really don't care about you, because they're to busy caring about themselves. This is a positive thing in the sense that you can mess up, don't be afraid to, you don't have to be perfect, because, not as many people as you think will catch all of your mistakes. While I did this, not many people really cared, they went on with their lives as I went on with my day of silence. I'll leave it at that for now, and maybe draw from this post on a later date.

That was my day of silence. Not speaking a word, not using my vocal cords for over 24 hours. In the end my vocal cords didn't sound better, nor did they spontaneously break, which leaves an ambivalent feeling. Kidding, I love my voice, as I hope you love yours, and I hope that you enjoyed this post, addressing why I spent a day in silence because of a friend's simple comment, how the day went simply, and how I was reminded that people don't care about the things you do as much as you think they do. Thank you for reading this, have an amazing week, I'll see you the next, peace. P.S. Thank you to my friend who told me to shut up, it's something I don't see kids do much anymore, tell people the truth and what they need to hear, I appreciate you, and respect you more than before you said it, contrary to what you may believe.