Quite Quiet

Brian stumbles into the noise-polluted cage after the bell rang for what felt like the 20th time this week, initiating the start of lunch. He notices his friend sitting alone in the opposite corner and prepares for the journey to salvation. In front of him, no-man’s land seems far too vacant. Soon the infinite regiments will declare war and themselves upon the battleground, from which there is no escape without injury.

It’s too late. Brian is forced to crouch by a nearby table-cum-barricade, by which he grimaces at the personality warfare of verbal bullets and esteem grenades. There is no option but to commando crawl along the empty trenches into known territory. BOOM! Only a few feet away an arrogance mine threw several troops to the cold ground.

Brian had to continue. He couldn’t make it. Casualties were dropping like flies. He was surprised he hadn’t been spotted yet; he was usually spotted first. Something inside him was driving him on, and took to the final desk in the corner of the room, finally meeting back with his friend.

“What on earth are you doing down there, Brian?”

There are very few quiet people in our society today, since it has become a materialistic society, in which those with the money, or those with the stature to demand it, tend to have more success socially. Being fairly quiet means that I have, at times, felt less-known by those around me and vice-versa, and therefore lack a ‘social standing’ within the community. However, it is terms like ‘social standing’ and ‘popularity’ which have always left bitter tastes in my mouth.

It would be ignorant to disregard the abundant links between arrogance and loudness and respectively those between humility and quietness and it has been clear to me that those with arrogance are those who regularly worry about ‘social standing’. Admittedly, that is a sweeping statement but it is undoubtedly true with the majority of them.

It is funny, though, when you spot two of the most arrogant people in your community, engaging in a ‘conversation’ regarding their achievements! I notice them and realise that they are the type of people I want to avoid becoming because, for me, it is undesirable to declare your presence in the room to everyone. I have always been happy to sit with close friends, causing no trouble but taking no risks. That is a great problem with quiet people: you can be a conscientious student, but if you don’t care about looking foolish every now and again, you can’t improve like the others.

After realising this, I found ways of improving confidence and humility, especially because I had been awful at having general conversations. Those two aspects, confidence and humility, are extremely important aspects of a person’s character. I believe that with low humility it is hard to continue trying, but with low confidence it is difficult to start the trying.

You can lie low like our good old friend Brian and allow people to think they are more important than you, or stand up, put on your body armour and stroll through because you deserve to be respected.

As the Chinese philosopher Confucius had said:

“Respect yourself and others will respect you.”