Personal Narrative: My Middle School Life

For most of what I remember to be my middle school life, I tried my best not to become involved with any of the gossip and drama in the various networks of my class. Rarely did I ever engage in group conversations or even one-to-one conversations for that matter. In fact, any type and degree of social interaction seemed exhausting to me. Therefore, I usually stood away from the general population and kept to myself. On one special day, one of my classmates came up to me and asked me, “Celina, you're always so quiet around here. Do you know the dirt about everyone because you're always listening to the conversations?” “No, “ I answered, with a completely indifferent tone in my voice. Of all the things anyone could have asked me about in that very moment, it had to be gossip.

According to ill-conceived middle school terms, being the quiet kid, or being silent for ninety-percent of the school day, was usually associated with shyness, being docile, and having no social life. In short, I was nearly invisible to most of my class. However, invisibility does not go without its perks. Perhaps my invasive classmate associated my quietness with good listening or some other advantageous trait. Thus, I set out on a journey to find out if the quiet kids had some sort of shared superpower. There were many things I learned about the state of silence while, of course, contemplating the subject in silence. First, being silent was not cowardly. It took courage not to blurt out what was on my mind at any given moment. Instead, I always chose my words carefully, and that I did