Vow of Silence

(this was written on the evening of March 1, 2007)

Today at school, we did a Vow of Silence, meaning we couldn't talk from midnight February 28th to midnight March 1st.

Not everyone participated and it wasn't like we were just shutting up for no reason; it was for a cause. All proceeds were going towards building a school in Kenya.

I participated and it was really hard because not only am I used to talking, I am used to blurting out the first thing that comes to m mind. (I babble a lot.) I woke and couldn't talk. I said one word before I left the house, "Shush." Then I got to school and saw how many people were doing it made it a little bit easier.

But I got more frustrated when it felt like everyone around me could talk, but I couldn't. The kids who had lanyards and had gotten sponsors but were still talking made me so mad, I wanted to scream at them, but I didn't.

I did however have a couple of paper conversations and one computer conversation. Even my teachers were doing the Vow which made class interesting.

I barely made it through the end of school. Let me tell you I hate not talking especially when people all around me are talking. Then school got out and I saw people who had seemed like there were really doing it in school start talking the minute they exited the building, that was frustrating too. I felt like the only person who had followed the rules.

Then I got to my mom's office and she wasn't there and I couldn't call her to find out where she was. I finally had to get one of my mom's coworkers to call her (Thank you, Lila) and tell her I was there and I was wondering where she was and when she was going to be back. It turned out she was skiing with Steve. So she cam and picked me up and brought me home.

I still can't speak for another 7 hours, luckily I will be sleeping a significant amount of that time.

And because I know you're wondering, this Vow of Silence was not just in my town, it was nationwide and through this organization called Free The Children, which is the largest children to children organization in the world. Also, today my school raised more than 9,600 American dollars, enough to build a 2 room schoolhouse in Kenya. There were articles in The Aspen Daily News today and there will be one in the Aspen Times tomorrow.