So I am going to plagiarize myself one more time. This post and the last post were posted on a different blog for school but who knows how many of you are reading that. Besides I want my work to show up with my name, so why not publish it here too?
It’s still pertaining to my time in Nicaragua so it’s a service based mind frame that I am writing from. It has been a couple of days since I wrote this and I’m not sure if it is because we are getting closer to the end or if it’s because of who we are but I can already tell that the idea of rekindling friendships has been put out. It’s always funny to see how things develop. Nonetheless, I still feel that this piece holds a lot of truth and is relevant. Plus, it’d be nice to be wrong.
Again, I hope you enjoy!
The Sound of Silence
We all have been really good at talking about the service we are doing. Talking about the people and lifestyles we are seeing. We talk about the learning we’ve done. We talk about the illness, the poor, the rich, the needy, the helpless. But that’s what everyone does when they go on a trip like this. It’s like an unspoken rule, you must focus on everything outside of you. But what about that sound of silence? What about those moments when we are all speechless? When it seems we have nothing to say, what is really being said? Have we really been reflecting or have we actually been deflecting? It’s possible some have been projecting but if they have, why? Why can’t we all be honest about how we are feeling and about what we are thinking? What I am trying to get to is that there is a lot going on within ourselves that we are not talking about.
Some of us are changing in our hearts and minds and it’s a beautiful thing. This is very difficult to talk about. We aren’t trained to talk about it. Very rarely can a person actually identify the changes going on inside them. They don’t see how their opinions are changing, how their techniques are changing, how very small pieces within them are changing. But sometimes we do see the change. We see it, we feel it, but we still can’t quite articulate it. I think this is ok. It’s something we have to let happen, don’t try to control it. This change often happens in the silence. Kind of like the butterfly effect; a small change in our cores that will forever impact the people we are and the people we become.
All of us are changing in our relationships. This one is more superficial. It’s easier to see, and some try to fight it, some try to embrace it. We are a group of random people. Yes, we all came from the same physical therapy school and yes we all spent the last two years together but we are random. Some of us were good friends for a while and then we weren’t. Some of us rarely talked and now we prefer each others’ company over everyone else’s. Some of us were fearful that this would be a lonely trip, one spent constantly being the odd man out. From where I sit, there’s a lot changing that we aren’t acknowledging. We are rekindling friendships, we are starting new friendships, and we are all making an effort to be patient and try again fresh every day. We all still have quirks that annoy someone else but we all have a little more understanding too. If I were a betting man, I’d say this won’t last. We will return home and interact only when necessary. It’s a sad truth. This sound of silence, it needs to break through like a shattering glass wall. If we can break this sound of silence, our relationships will be that much more profound; we can truly connect and grow.
✌🏼 extravagantly simple
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