One morning I woke up and realized I could hear everyone’s inner voice. At first, I thought I was dreaming. The sudden barrage of thoughts felt like static. I could hear my sister’s voice come through the wall: I hope mom doesn’t ask to help with breakfast. Normally it’d be impossible to hear her with the thick walls of the house.
I went downstairs and saw mom boiling eggs. “Did I leave the stove on last night?” I stared at her in awe. She smiled, but that didn’t match her thoughts: He looks dead today, I hope he’s not sick again. I didn’t say anything, I couldn’t let her know. I just tried to endure the constant bombardment of thoughts as I was leaving to go school.
School was miserable, the voices were loud and messy.” I forgot about my homework.” “Is something wrong with me?” People thought about their past mistakes, regrets, hopes for the future… All of which I could hear. It almost felt like trespassing someone’s private property. The human mind is rarely quiet, I learned.
In class, however, being able to read people’s thoughts weren’t as bad. Since everybody was already talking out loud anyway, I didn’t have to learn anymore dirty secrets about someone. I could only hear our teacher dreaming of going home.
The part I hated the most was realizing how many people were hurting. Even the ones who could smile through anything had thoughts filled with stress, sadness and loneliness. I thought long and hard on how I could approach them, say small things to let them know I noticed, but I thought I would come off as creepy.
A week later, my head was buzzing. I yearned for silence, but I also felt more human in away. I felt a connection with people I haven’t even talked to. Everyone had something going on inside, even if they chose to noy say it out loud. Hearing the inner voices changed me. Even the quietest people are screaming inside, and we should all try to listen, exceeding the boundaries of words.