Silence is lovely

Hello all. I’d like to start off by saying how glad I am that the vow of silence is only one day long.  I honestly don’t think that I could handle being silent for more than  a 24 hour span, if you know me, I’m sure you’ll agree. Here is a list of the 5 things that I considered to be the most difficult part of my day.

1)     Not being able to use my phone while making the long trek to my university campus. Usually, I text or talk on my phone while walking, but today I obviously didn’t have the option to do so and as a result, my trip seemed so much longer.

2)       Not being able to answer questions in class. It seemed as though my professor was purposely asking questions that I knew the answers to. Even when I had a question or needed clarification, I was unable to have my thoughts heard.

3)       Not being able to say things like “thank you” when someone held the door open for me. I dislike it when people don’t do so, and when I wasn’t able to, I felt like I was being rude.

4)       On the bus, I wasn’t able to say excuse me to people when I was trying to get by, so I had to just push through them. Once again, I can just imagine how rude this must have seemed to the others.

5)       Not being able to talk to people, in general. There aren’t very many people that I know at my university, but when I happen to see someone that I do know, it’s nice to chat with them for a while. Today, when passing by some of my friends and acquaintances, it was difficult not being able to converse with them. It was especially lonely considering that everyone else on campus seemed to be in groups or pairs, chatting away. I must have come off as pretty socially awkward all day, the way I avoided eye contact with others.

I expected that I would have had more trouble not being able to communicate via email or facebook or other internet sources, but it was surprisingly easy. I guess I got through all of this pretty painlessly since I had the thought in my mind that it was only for today. Knowing that I didn’t have to endure the silence for a long time span was a sobering thought and helped me get through the day. However, I did manage to sneak in a lesson; it’s important to value your voice because there are people who don’t have the same luxuries as we do. People who don’t have the opportunity to speak up in class- or even attend class for that matter, people who don’t have cell phones or computers, people who don’t have friends.  We have so many privileges that we should be thankful for and today really helped me see how important it is to be able to communicate with others.

 Now, I must say that I really do hope more people will participate in this vow in some way in the future; whether you take it yourself or you donate to someone’s cause. I’m not usually the biggest participant in fundraising events, but it actually does feel amazing contributing to charity. Thanks for reading, everyone!

Are you willing to give up your voice?

I am about to do something for which I am both excited and nervous. Many of us have experiences in giving up things that are important to us, for whatever period of time. However, have any of you ever given up your voice? When I say that, I don’t mean your physical capability to speak, but your ability to be heard. If you haven’t already guessed, tomorrow I’m taking part in the Vow of Silence that was started by the Free the Children Organization. The Vow of Silence happens once yearly. Basically, one who is participating takes the vow to give up their voice for the whole 24 hour span of the day. By giving up your voice, you’re not simply promising to not speak; you’re giving up texting, email, any form of communication, really. Some true visionaries choose to give up the use of their vehicles, computers, televisions, and other material items that are available to us as a privilege; things that children growing up in third world countries are deprived of.

I realize that there are people who think that this vow is a farfetched idea, that giving up our voices for one day isn’t going to help give others around the world a voice. However, what people fail to understand is that this day revolves around awareness and fundraising. People taking the vow will spread the word. I can honestly say that before two years ago, when I first took the vow, I didn’t pay any mind to the issues people on the other side of the world were facing. Of course, I knew that people in third world countries didn’t have the same luxuries as I, a Canadian, have, but I never thought about how hard it must have been to live in a place where my voice was neither valued, nor heard.

Long story short, the main reason I’m posting this blog is because I wanted to let people know that starting midnight tonight, I won’t say a word, neither verbally nor electronically. Those of you who know me personally already know how difficult this will be for me, so I’ll spare you an explanation of how much I normally talk.

I’ll post a link to my fundraising page and if you could PLEASE donate, I’d greatly appreciate it. Also, I’ll post a link for those of you who want to sign up to take the vow yourselves, you can create your own page and get started. I’ll update you either midnight tomorrow night or on Thursday letting you know how my day went. Thanks for reading!

My page: http://my.e2rm.com/personalPage.aspx?SID=3216822&langPref=en-CA

If you want to sign up: http://www.freethechildren.com/vowofsilence/

Protesters pepper sprayed at UC Davis

            There’s been a lot of critique around the news of the police officer pepper spraying the students protesting for the Occupy movement at UC Davis yesterday. I thought that I should address this because a bunch of people that I had spoken to about it had differing opinions. I just want to clarify that I in no way agree with how the police officers decided to handle the situation. Under no circumstances do I think it justified for law enforcers to use pepper spray, a tool that is meant for the purpose of self defense, on innocent students. I agree that I don’t know a lot about laws in America, as I am Canadian myself, but I do know that under the Constitution, the right to freedom of assembly is outlined in the First Amendment.

            According to the Chancellor of UC Davis, the whole reason that the authorities were called was to help ensure the safety and protection of the students. Now what I really want to know is how the use of pepper spray, especially by those who are supposed to be looked up to and respected by civilians, equates protection. I mean, it is true that some of the students probably were out of line in what they were saying, but overall, it was a peaceful protest. The students remained seated along one of the campus’ sidewalks, blocking people from passing them. The way I see it, people that really were in dire need to get to the other side of those students could have gone around them, walking on the grass to get through. Sure, it would have taken a couple more seconds to get by, but hey, sometimes life gives you lemons. What confuses me the most about all of this is that the University agreed that the actions of the police were justified and necessary to ensure students’ “health and safety”. It’s as though the immediately affected students’ health and safety is completely disregarded in this situation.

            I realize that protestors may cause inconvenience for others who don’t share the same passion for standing on the street in the freezing cold weather, waving around signs, displaying their discontent with the establishment to passersby, but it is a right that is ensured to all civilians. That being said, I do not think that the government, police officers, university  officials, or anyone for that matter, reserve the right to remove those protesters off a public premises by means of a weapon.


View: an image of the protest taking place http://i.imgur.com/0UoEz.jpg
View: an image of the email from the Chancellor at UC Davis http://i.imgur.com/WZeNW.png