Day 1

Unfortunately, day one of deprivation fell on the aftermath of my 21st birthday. Due to lack of misery I was feeling, we headed down to the hotel pool for mimosas. At this point (about 10 am) the thought of media deprivation had not yet crossed my mind. Regardless, there were several phone calls made and received in order to organize breakfast, but they were pretty necessary considering the circumstances. Furthermore, as the day continued I did not encounter too many problems. Like we discussed in class, music in a friend’s car is acceptable so I was very thankful for this on our two hour journey back from Austin.

Most of the hardships began to occur as I got home. With the anticipation of a serious hangover, I had previously gotten my shift covered at work. And although I thought this would be the best decision I had ever made, it ended up leading to an extremely boring evening. Normally in any free time I have (which is usually just a couple hours a week), I try to catch up on my favorite TV shows, or just lay around and listen to music. Sadly, neither of these activities were an option and I wasn’t quite desperate enough to start studying; so I called my best friend to see if she wanted to go shopping. Very thankfully she did, and I lucked out again because since she piloted, I was able to listen to music once again! =)

Even though I successfully avoided boredom for a few hours, the silence came back when I got home again. As I tried to submerse myself in studying for my biology final, I became completely annoyed with the silence. The scarcity of music seems to be the most difficult part for me, even to the point where I keep finding myself trying to turn on music out of habit and having to remind myself after wards that I’m breaking the rules. On the upside, I fell fast asleep last night with no music or television on, which is something I have not tried in years, literally. I have hopes that tomorrow will be better, or at least pass more quickly since I will be spending at least half my day at work.