Maddy Andrews
Honors English 1
Mrs. Belden
7 November 2014
McCandless Project
For my McCandless Project, I chose to not talk to my parents very long for a whole night. I chose this project because I am a very talkative person and am very outgoing and happy all the time. I tell my mom everything and always talk to my dad about life in general. At first, my mom was concerned that I was sick or upset. She kept trying to get me to stay in the kitchen to talk to her! When I walked upstairs to my room, she opened the door and tried to get me to talk. When I wouldn’t say anything, she asked me a bunch of questions to see if something was upsetting me. My mom then checked ProgressBook to make sure it wasn’t my grades that were making me mad. She thought something was seriously wrong, when in reality I was only being silent for a school project. My dad thought I was just having an “off day” and left me alone. During the experiment, I thought I was constantly being judged and people were really worried about me. My mom wouldn’t leave me alone until she heard the whole story about why I was “upset.” I was a little surprised about how concerned my mom was! I know I talk a lot, but I didn’t think that not talking would seem so alarming to her. My dad on the other hand had a completely suspected reaction. My dad likes to give me my space when I’m upset and knows that if I want to talk about my issues, he’ll be the first one I talk to. By the results of my little experiment, I do think we are able to do what we want in life, but we have to be ready to be judged. Anything that we do that is “abnormal” or out of the social norm, we can and will be judged.
