In my first week here, silence was hard to come by. In Santiago, I was in a hostel with 44 other volunteers who were all as eager and excited as I was start the teaching journey. We had little time and lots to share. As you can imagine, there was little sleep, lots of socializing, and plenty of noise. In addition to this, we were in training for the better part of 8 hours per day. We were taking notes, listening to lectures, and participating in activities. During this time, silence was boring. We were all so excited and full of energy and life that we couldn't stand to be silent for much longer than when we were sleeping. And even then, it wasn't guaranteed.
Then I moved along in my journey to the south. Magallanes as they call it here. I went from being 1 of 45 to being 1 of 2... within a 300km radius. In addition, I had a week off, which most would have loved to be blessed with. For me, it left a lot of room for boredom and silence. My spanish wasn't very polished, I was in a new place, knew no one, and was quite shook up to be honest. During this time, the silence was horrid. I didn't want to be alone, I just wanted to be around people I could actually talk to. Luckily, this abundance of free time didn't last long and and as I got to work, my mind was taken away from silence and the loneliness that accompanied it.
The horrid stage of silence would hit me every now and then during the 1st month and a half. It would come in waves, when I was sitting at home on my computer out of sheer lack of having anything to do or anyone that I was brave enough to ask to do it with me. These times were testing, but with a little help from family and friends, I made the most of it.
Through these times silence was my teacher. It taught me to be independent in thought, in action, and in motivation. It taught me how to revel in my boredom, to enjoy the feeling of having absolutely nothing to do. It also led me to activities that I simply didn't have time for in the states, like playing the guitar and reading a good book. But most of all, it taught me to enjoy the silence.
Thus I reached the "silence is a beautiful thing" phase. I spend a large majority of my days in a school with 1000 screaming, giggling, game playing, sass dealing girls, which is about the farthest cry from silence I have ever experienced. And if I'm not in the school, I'm with spanish speakers, which means interpreting, translating, thinking and speaking in Spanish. In which case, there is no silence to be found in or out of my own head.
Through this learning process I have grown to treasure the times of silence, and learned to use the double edged sword that it is to my advantage. I have discovered many things about myself and life because of the peace and power of mind that come with it. I can't think of a better way to end this post than by sharing a quote I recently found, and by inviting those of you who read this to sit and enjoy some silence, because sometimes there's nothing better than doing nothing.
"Within each of us, there is a silence, a silence as vast as the universe.
And when we experience that silence, we remember who we are. "
- Gunilla Norris
