Sentimental Silence Essay

The Sentimental Silence

Suryaa Sheikh

Silence is sentiment. It is the emotion we seek to avoid and yet still crave as if it is the air we breathe. It is both hatred and love, there is no denying that here, fondness and displeasure are somehow allowed to go hand in hand. It is the desire to escape something, or maybe enter something new. The sense of belonging while somehow being wrong, as the logical and fanciful components of your mind attempt to break through the confines you have them under. It is a building emotion, nameless and uncategorized, that has found its way into the armor around your soul. It is terrifying and contenting all at once, nothing can compare to the sheer overwhelming feeling of complete and utter silence. I know

It is the moment of silence after a hard question has been asked, whether by yourself or by others around you. Maybe no one even asked a question, but you are still contemplating something. Sometimes forcing the silence is attempted, but it becomes more strained, hard to focus on. Other times you could simply be daydreaming, frolicking in your mind palace. There may be noises around you, however, at this point your mind has blotted it out in favor for delving into itself, making all around it mute. You become entirely submerged in your mind, drowning peacefully in your contemplation. It is likely your body will go into autopilot, as this could occur during a job or chore or maybe it’s just your breathing that needs to be forgotten, as it can be the loudest sound in the silence you have made. The thoughts do not have to be too deep, or even all that important, after all, they could be plain daydreams. They are simply thoughts that have become significant to you at the moment, significant enough to block out the rest of the world. These thoughts do not noticeably affect your physical self, at least not until after you have been pulled out of them, unlike fearful