Personal Narrative: My Middle School Life

For most of what I remember to be my middle school life, I tried my best not to become involved with any of the gossip and drama in the various networks of my class. Rarely did I ever engage in group conversations or even one-to-one conversations for that matter. In fact, any type and degree of social interaction seemed exhausting to me. Therefore, I usually stood away from the general population and kept to myself.

On one special day, one of my classmates came up to me and asked me, “Celina, you're always so quiet around here. Do you know the dirt about everyone because you're always listening to the conversations?”

“No, “ I answered, with a completely indifferent tone in my voice. Of all the things anyone could have asked me about in that very moment, it had to be gossip.

After that much unwanted and rather ironic confrontation, I started wondering about how powerful being the “quiet kid” could be.

According to ill-conceived middle school terms, being the quiet kid, or being silent for ninety-percent of the school day, was usually associated with shyness, being docile, and having no social life. In short, I was nearly invisible to most of my class. However, invisibility does not go without its perks. Perhaps my invasive classmate associated my quietness with good listening or some other advantageous trait. Thus, I set out on a journey to find out if the quiet kids had some sort of shared superpower. There were many things I learned about the state of silence while, of course, contemplating the subject in silence.

First, being silent was not cowardly. It took courage not to blurt out what was on my mind at any given moment. Instead, I always chose my words carefully, and that I did

well.
Therefore, in an environment that was becoming increasingly opinionated and demanding, silence became as effective as radical action. It stood out as a fierce, moving statement amidst a norm of constant yelling and shouting.
Silence also opened up plenty of opportunity for introspection. I had more engaging conversations with myself in silence than I could ever have with another human being. I asked myself questions that only I knew how to answer, and I understood more about who I was as a person through my responses. I could change the topic at any time and still not get lost in my words. I discovered more and more about myself every single day.
Besides discovering more about myself, I was able to discover more about others without interacting with them. I found that the phrase “actions speak louder than words” became even more relevant once the words were completely eliminated. The sincerity of who a person was could not be masked by what they said they were.
In the end, all the little perks of silence that I discovered made me appreciate being a quiet kid instead of viewing it as a negative trait. To this day, I believe that there is great power in silence. However, as the legendary Uncle Ben once recited, “With great power comes great responsibility.” The fruit that stems from silence is plenty, but the profit from sharing that fruit with the world is endless. So, to the quiet kids, embrace the silence, but do not forget to share your minds with the world.