If anyone knows me very well, they know that I enjoy talking. Enjoy is an understatement; better yet, I prefer to talk. I love telling you all about the current events in my life, even if you really could care less. I find my stories funny and amusing to me at least, and really that is all that matters in life! Living with over 60 girls all in one house, you are bound to be caught on the sick train at least once. And yes that happened to me, but in a way I least expected it.
I thought that I would just get the sniffles, nothing too crazy. But I woke up and couldn’t speak. My sisters wouldn’t even realize I was in the room or at the table sometimes. It was very rough so thank goodness it only happened for two days, because I don’t know what I would have done if it was longer! I refused to go to Health and Wellness so my best diagnosis was a form of acute laryngitis. I will say this now. I am no doctor, and honestly could be making all of this up, but hey, at least it will turn out to be a pretty good story. What I do know is that I walked around my house with a little white board and dry erase marker trying to communicate and have conversations with people as fast as my little hand could write. In my opinion, I think I did it pretty well.
This two-day experience opened my eyes to what it would be like to be one of those people that don't speak. That fades themself in the corner and pretends that they are not a contributing member of society. I couldn’t image always feeling that you are in that situation and not being able to do anything about it. It's really awful! It has made me aware that I couldn’t ever be that type of person and that I am very lucky for how outgoing I am!
It almost felt as if I was a fly on the wall. I think after Miley Cyrus came out with the song “Fly On The Wall” back in the day, it made us all get the feels of wearing all black and sneaking around. There were thoughts going through my head that made me wonder what it is like when I’m not with the group of people, or what it would be like if my opinion never exists. That would be a very big problem.
I got some people to start mouthing words back at me, moving their hands around quickly, trying to grab my marker from me to write on my board, all in the efforts of communicating back to me because they forgot that they could still speak! Thank you to my waiter Monday night who understood my pain and read off of my white board what I ordered for dinner, which was a complicated sounding order for just bread and a soda!
Being sick is no fun, and having a swollen throat is pretty torturous! I really just wanted to cry if we are being honest, I felt as if I had no control over my body and there was nothing I could do, because really there wasn’t! I sat in the backseat of the car and had to text up my input in the conversation. That sounds pathetic because it really is.
So thank you to my sorority sisters for helping take care of me and watching out, the waiter for reading my order off of my white board and my Business Law professor that understood me when I tried talking to him but only air came out of my mouth. Good news, I am back to speaking again!
