A World Without Words

Communication is key to life. Without communication there is no civilization, and without civilization there is no world. Sense communication is so vital to us as a human race, it is understandable that amount of pressure that is placed upon one’s ability to communicate, or transfer ones thoughts if you will. One common misconception that I must admit I have both been guilty and victim of is thinking that if one is quiet they have nothing good to say. When in fact it is many of the quite folks who have the best thoughts, they just may not have the oral ability or skills to deliver those thoughts in a way that is understood and accepted by others. I know many people including myself are often very self conscious about speaking in front of people, I get all worried and flustered as to how I am going to sound. No one wants to sound dumb, and regardless of what we say we all really do care what others think on some level even if it is trivial.
I remember one time I had a job interview for a teaching position at a prominent pre-school in the Antelope Valley. It was a religious based program and while I have attended church before it has been a very long time for me. I was very worried, nervous and just downright scared. I remember reading the bible and going over verses the night before, I am not sure what I was excepting a test maybe? =) Anyway when I got there I had worked the whole situation up so much in my head that I was sweating and just terrified. Did I mention this was my first interview ever? They called me into a small room, it was me and a panel of five other people. Each person took terns asking me questions about various things, my life style, my beliefs, my family, my education and so on and so forth. I remember sitting there and I couldn’t get the words to come out right for anything. I was fumbling my words, saying um a bunch of times. I knew all the answers, but I just didn’t have the composure to deliver the responses. I lacked the ability to efficiently communicate. Looking back now I don’t know why they offered me a position, I know I looked like a fool. I remember one of the ladies on the panel actually asked me after if English was my first language because my verbal performance was so horrible. It’s easily understandable my last name is Fernandes, so I did not take too much offence to the question. It was just a terrible feeling to not be able to communicate efficiently; it really made me feel bad about myself.
A bit of a side note, but this makes me wonder how the deaf feel, or those who come to our country and do not speak the native language. They have nothing wrong with them; they just can’t communicate with us due to the fact that we speak differently based on geographic locations. I know how I felt during my thirty minute interview, I couldn’t image how non English speakers, and the deaf feel when they cannot express their ideas to us.