The Day of Silence

The Day of Silence

For this essay I will be taking time to explain you what I did to become deaf and mute, explain struggles I had with this experiment, the frustrations and joys it brought, and what I plan to do with the results I received from the experiment. I will first tell you what I used to make myself deaf. Second, I will talk about the certain struggles I encountered during the experiment. Third, I will talk about the frustrations and joys I encountered during the experiment. Finally, I will talk about how I plan to use my experience and the results of the experiment have on my worldview.

The set up was pretty interesting. After seeing a gaming headset not work as well as I wanted I started to doubt that it could be done to a point of it being effective. After a lot of thinking of what could be done to limit the as much sound as possible I came up with two main ideas: First, I would use a legitimate sound canceling headset. By that I mean a headset that is said to cancel 90% of sound. I wanted to really do this one but finding a headset that would do that would have been expensive. So I came up with my second idea. I took earplugs that are used to help cancel sound when sleeping. Along with those I used a friend’s headset used at gun ranges to cancel out the gun shots. So that is what I used and how I got to cancel out most of the sound the day I did my experiment.

Some of the main struggles I faced with this experiment was the fact that I couldn’t hear and that made it extremely hard to communicate with my friends. That was probably the biggest one I felt, but there were a few others like when Josh wrote something done that I thought was hilarious I had to contain myself to not tell another joke or if I heard my name, not to react to it. If I couldn’t be 100% deaf, I wanted to at least act like I was.

There were a lot of frustrations and most of them I have already mentioned because they were a part of the struggles. So, I will talk about the joy I felt in this experiment. I really enjoyed the silence or the quieter state I was in. It was extremely relaxing and it actually helped me get stuff done more efficiently. This really limited the distractions I would have normally had in a normal day. The biggest joy was probably being able to experience something different and more importantly something that some people live with, not so much the being deaf because it wasn’t real deafness but the not being able to speak. I find joy when I have caught a glimpse of what some people live with like not being able to hear completely or not being able to talk. The reason is it really helps me to put myself in other people’s shoes.

Now from this I have learned a few things. We should not look down on people because they have a problem with something like a sense. I know myself and whenever I made the statement, “I don’t look down on or make myself better when I see someone with a disability.” I feel like a lot of say this and would not outright say that we are better than any of these things. However, I have come to notice that through this experiment that though I may not say that I am better. There is this feeling deep down that says I am better than that because I have all my senses functioning properly. I hate to admit that but it is true and I don’t think many people are far from that either. Now my worldview completely clashes with what I just said. My worldview goes along with that all men are created equal so there should be no discriminating going on. So, I have come to the conclusion that I need to change how I view people in this world. That comes with a change of a lifestyle in the sense of more commitment to God, because he is the only person who can change something like that.

I have shown you what I did to do this experiment, the struggles that came with it, the joys I got from it, and what I think I need to change to fulfill my worldview more effectively. This has been a eye opening experience, even without being able to become completely deaf, in the way that it really makes you think about what you have and not take it for granted. This is a very significant thing that becomes priceless when you take the knowledge you learn and actually put it to use to change your life and maybe even others. I highly recommend doing something like this, you will not regret it.  

Expectations

What did you expect to happen?

When I honestly was not entirely sure what expect. I thought I wasn’t going to cancel out enough sound for it to really effective. So, leading up to the experiment I was really doubtful that it was going to work. I was also unsure of how I was going to communicate because I was also choosing to not talk either and since I did not know American Sign Language.

What actually happened?

The noise canceling was actually effective to a point. If you were within 3ft and talking normally I could hear you alright. Anything outside that range and not yelling, like most of our English classes end up being… I mean..., I could hear but not make it out. This is all single people talking. If you add more people it gets even better. From being able to understand people from 3 ft away to it all being a jumbled mess is pretty crazy. Now for the communication I was able to point and make some weird gestures to get my point across or I could write what I wanted to say down, but that would have been too easy.

Do you feel that if you did this for longer, something about you would have changed?

I actually believe that it could change you, but first let me say that because I did not experience complete deafness that it didn’t give me the insight to how deaf people lived that I would like. With that being said, I believe that if I would have continued for a longer time it definitely would have had more of an impact on me. From the short time that I was deaf and mute, I gained some insight to how not being able to hear or talk can cause a “language barrier”, if you will, to be caused and can make communicating a lot more difficult and frustrating at times.

Would you recommend other people do what you did? Why or why not?

Yes I would, though it was not being purely deaf it still helped you get a small glimpse on how life would be if you lost some or all of your hearing, which I believe is invaluable experience because it puts in perspective how God has provided such a good condition for most of us to live in with all our senses working.  

The Manifesto

The worldview I hold is a Christian oriented one. So, I live my life, to the best of my ability, with a simple statement, “Love God, Love people.” This statement is all encompassing for if you love God you will love people. God commands us to go out and make Him new disciples. Now, in order for me to do this more effectively I will be conducting an experiment and in this experiment I will be deaf and unable to talk for a whole twenty-four hours.

                Now the reason for this experiment is two-fold. The first thing is this, I want to learn what it is like to be without two of my major senses. This will naturally bring me to my second reason which is if I truly want to go out and be the light to a dark world, I believe that this experience will help me relate to certain people better, though not permanently deaf and mute it will give me insight onto how people live without these senses. 

The moment when I find myself slowly slipping into a life of despair,
I know not where to turn or where to go.
I find myself slipping into this abyss I call my life.
The silence is beckoning to come closer, unsure of where to go
I step back and go with the silence.
At that time I hear a small voice telling me to go on and go deeper.
Unsure of what will happen I have to hold onto this faith in silence,
and I realize that this faith is guiding me in a way that my
human body tells me not to go.
Yet I follow it still, my body is screaming in agony of this silence.
Then I come to grips to reality, the true reality.
The silence brought me to my Father's house.
I fall on my knees and weep for forgiveness to find,
that He has been waiting for me.
He smiles and wipes away these tears of sorrow
comforts me.
I am finally home.

Anticipation

I am about to undergo in an experiment and in this experiment I will be going deaf for one day. The point of this is to gain self-realization of myself. There a few things I think will happen. First, I hope gain the appreciation of my hearing and how drastic my life could change with out it. Second, I believe I will start to show more understanding with those who are legitimately deaf. Finally, I believe this will draw me closer to my Creator in the sense of thankfulness towards me being in perfect health and having the necessities of life always provided to me. I am going to really enjoy this and plan on doing it the 13th or 14th of December.