Make 3: Perspective Exercise
The main character Melody in Out of my Mind by Sharon M. Draper has a severe case of cerebral palsy which limits her ability to do everyday tasks. For my third make, I chose to do a perspective exercise where I could not talk for two hours. I wanted to get an idea of what that would feel like for Melody. I started by making little fliers I gave out to people so that they would understand why I wasn’t speaking and I emailed my professor to make sure he was alright with me carrying out this exercise during his class. I also made a word board like Melody had that had some common phrases, words, and the alphabet. I can say that this was incredibly frustrating experience. I like to participate in my classes so it was really frustrating for me not to be able to join in on discussions. I had also dyed my hair the day before so that was poor timing because people were being nice and complimenting me and I had to point at my board to say “thank you”, which was weird to do. I really feel that I have taken speech for granted before. Not being able to say what you want and being limited to a select number of words on a board is very difficult. At some point during my class I found myself being less engaged because I knew that I couldn’t give my input regardless. So I didn’t feel I had much of a point to listen if I couldn’t contribute in any way. After this exercise, I believe I understand to an extent what life was like for Melody. I feel that being able to relate to her character helped me connect more with the whole book as well. Though I will never be able to fully understand, I believe that attempting to step into one’s shoes rather than judging them because they are different is a valuable skill to learn. This was a very eye-opening exercise for me and I would encourage others to try to do the same someday.