Seven Days of Silence

The objective: Maintain a vow of silence; spend an entire week (Wednesday April 28, 2010 to Wednesday May 5, 2010) without speaking.

So I will be spending a full seven days without speaking while trying to live my life as normally as possible. I will still go to class, grocery shop, eat pizza and hang out with friends (and everything else I do normally), only without speaking. I will carry a small dry-erase board with me for written communication but I will attempt to refrain from using it too much.

Exceptions:

(and yes, these are the ONLY exceptions)

1. Any emergency situation - I don’t think I really need to explain this one but I will speak during an emergency. Fire, car crash, zombie attack and alien invasions are examples of emergencies.

2. Martial Arts - I practice Taekwon Do and Hapkido twice a week. In this setting it would be both extremely disrespectful and irresponsible to completely refrain from speaking. I will however limit my speech to only what is necessary.

3. The Department of Education - I’ve been told by the kind people who processed my FAFSA for next year that there is some sort of an issue with my financial aid application and that I should be expecting a call from the Department of Education. This is no laughing matter, I need financial aid to continue at the university next year. If they call, I will speak on the phone.

4. Extreme Family Business: My family has been informed and has promised not to call my cell phone unless something of real importance comes up. If they do call (and it actually is something serious), I will allow myself to speak.

Record:
I will be keeping record of this project mostly via online blog. I will post at least once a day (probably at night) to recount the general experience of the day, any difficulties I had or any times I had a slip up and accidentally spoke.

The blog can be found here: http://www.neilsbigolvowofsilence.blogspot.com

I will also keep a camcorder with me Thursday and Tuesday (the days I have class) to attempt to tape some interaction with people.