By: Ariel Aisen <[email protected]>

For someone who really enjoys the fine art of talking, having to learn to shut up has really proven to be quite a challenge.

A cold is going around the school, and I have proven myself most unfonfortunetly susceptible. The result of this virus is that I am completely without the use of my voice. Any attempts to talk come out as nothing more than a high-pitched murmur. The only way I have been able to get others to understand me is by whispering in their ear, or simply through a combination of awkward lip movements and body signals. You should see me try and ask permission to use the restroom through my personal style of interpretive dance.

But I have gained more from this experience than confused glances from my peers. I have discovered that simply by listening and not adding your own viewpoint to a conversation, you can gain great insight into the minds of your fellow students.

It is the most quiet and attentive student who gains the greatest perspective on life in and of itself. If one of our taciturn classmates lost his voice, I wonder how long it would take for the rest of us to even notice.
I was also mildly surprised to discover that if you start talking to someone in a harsh whisper, they will respond in the like. Even after explaining that, “I lost my voice and I have to whisper,” my friends time and again have whispered as well. By now, I’ve gotten used to saying, “You don’t have to whisper, you know.” Most people didn’t even realize they were doing it.

In a world where verbal communication is almost universally key to sustaining a semi-normal life, for me, the silence is truly deafening. How can I dish with my friends about the previous night’s episode of “Top Chef” without my voice? Let me be the first to tell you, miming “diced onions” is not as easy as you might think.
As a normally (sometimes overly) talkative person, I have found to my dismay that even my close circle of friends is delighting in the irony of my truly dire situation. I, the girl who always had something to say about every little thing, now unable to add my two cents? We have all had quite a laugh about that (at my expense, of course).

But, above all else, what I am coming to learn through this experience is that when everyone else is talking except for me, it has finally become clear just how much, and how loudly, the average high school student speaks. Try recording yourself sometime, just to see the great extent and volume of what you might consider a normal amount of conversing. Trust me, you will find yourself suprised.

And that lesson, I am sure, will stick with me. And I will be able to learn from it just as soon as I get my voice back.