By Aditi Patil
Staff Writer

The most frequently asked question yesterday was “Are you being silent?” and for around 200 students, including me the answer was a nod.

I maintained my silence throughout the day, almost. Perhaps there was an accidental one word slip, or breaking to ask a teacher a question. But this was a difficult task.

My teachers were very supportive. Some of them asked students to raise their hands at the beginning of class in order to identify if they were being silent that day. Others just went with the flow and accepted silence as it came. Most of my teachers congratulated my peers and I  on our efforts. The ones who were especially prepared had white boards and dry erase markers ready.

I started of with a small notebook so if I had a question I could write it down and pass it to a friend to ask for me. It was easier if we happened to be using laptops in class, or had class in a lab. That way I could type up anything I wanted to say. At times, though, I had to resort to miming out what I wanted to say. This technique didn’t work out well due to my poor miming skills.

Conversations while walking down the hallway, mostly consisted of a friend having a one sided conversation. They were surprisingly accepting of this role. Or, if I was with someone who was also doing the vow we would just walk side-by-side in silence.

“I was a little frustrated with Aditi because she never talked to me and I got bored. But I  didn’t bother her too much about it because I know it was for a good cause,” said one of my friends, freshman Nicole Pristin.

“I remember us walking down the hallway, next to each other. But I felt like strangers,” said another friend who also took the vow, freshman Kelsey Anderson.

The hardest was during lunch. As soon as I walked into the lunchroom, I could hear the loud drum of chatter. After I found my friends and they started talking, I immediately began to feel the urge to join the conversation. Unfortunately, I didn’t have a pen and paper with me, so there was no way to communicate.

My first slip up occurred during a geometry quiz. I was so consumed with the quiz, that I didn’t even remember that it was the Day of Silence. I got up to ask my teacher a clarifying question. Only a while later did i realize I had broken the vow.

The second time was during world history. The teacher had asked a question and nobody else raised their hand. Being the eager class participant I am, my hand shot up and I talked while answering the question. Again, I only realized my mistake after it happened.

At the end of the day, I was restless from not having talked all day. As soon as the last bell rang, the first words out of my mouth were “Oh, thank god!”. After that I talked nonstop to makeup for all the conversation I had missed.

“My friends would be laughing but I couldn’t join in…I felt like I couldn’t express myself,” said Anderson.

Despite the fact that I did accidentally break my silence, I think I understand the concept of the Day of Silence. It was hard not being able to say what was on my mind, especially when I wanted to say it so badly. As a result of keeping silent, I also noticed that I felt withdrawn from the world, even as people tried to include me. As the day went on, I started to feel isolated even when I had someone talking to me, simply because I didn’t talk back. And this was just one school day.

“I talked to you the same amount I do everyday. I treated you the same, too,” said Pristin.

It is important that all people, not limited lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans-gender and questionings students, don’t feel the need to be silent. Hopefully, yesterday demonstrated that WA is an accepting society and nobody needs to hold back their identity or be silent