Day Of Silence

The Day of Silence has always been meaningful to me. I first heard about it in 6th grade when my best friend at the time, Lezah, asked me if I'd be participating in it. I remember looking at her blankly. "Whats the Day of Silence?" She vaguely explained something about gay rights and bullying... to this day I still have no clue what she was taking about. When my mom picked me up from school I asked her if I should not talk like all my friends. Being the Christian-grounded parent she is, she told me it was for encouraging gay people to be gay and why should I support that it's wrong and against our faith. So I showed up the next day, as usual, and just talked like I usually did.
See, I probably wouldn't have even given Day of Silence a second thought if my friend had gotten through the entire day without talking. But by third period, even Lezah, the activist of our smallish group, was talking. It hit home. If they believed so strongly about this, how come they didn't even have the discipline to not chatter all day?
The next year, I had completely forgotten about that day. In fact, I still hardly remember anything from those few months at all... just a few flashes from stupid conversations and 'embarrassing' moments I had to endure. But 8th grade? That was a different story.
In 8th grade, I was accepted into a preforming arts academy that was 7-12th grades on a highschool campus. they separated the jr high from highschool, which made it a million times cooler to be a part of any club- like GSA. I started sneaking into the group at the beginning of the year and just kept attending throughout. By April, I was a regular member. But yet again, I ran into the same type of group as in 6th grade. They never once said anything about supporting the lgbtq community, even made a few gay slurs, throughout the entire school year until the week of the Day of Silence. Then it was "Gay people are amazing" "Oh my god, I love gay people!!" "Dude, gay people are so cool". I had low hopes for their success in "spreading the love" in the proper fashion that year. But, being me, I gave them the benefit of the doubt.
Sure enough, by second period our teacher Mrs. Gibson had broke them all down by calling on them for answers she knew they had memorized. It was half painful, half amusing to watch them struggle until their breaking point not to answer. Surprisingly enough(extreme sarcasm) I was the only one in a class of thirty kids to not speak all day.
I was so disappointed in them, I decided to continue my silence in protest to their lack of discipline and overall hypocrisy. My day of silence turned into two(pissing off all my fellow classmates and teachers), and then was extended through the entire weekend. Four days.
I will admitt, my cause did mutate a little. The first day was obviously for gay rights, the second was for hypocrisy, the third was for bullying, the fourth was for protesting lack of discipline.
Although my disappointment in my fellow activist's commitment is stronger than ever, I refuse to give up hope. I will participate this year regardless of the hypocrisy around me.
For all of you who are attempting not to speak today because you actually care about the cause... Thank you, and good luck.