No use of the letter "n"

Christine DeRienzo

Investigative Activity #4

Ten minutes without the letter “n”

            When I read this as one of the choices for this activity, I thought that it would not be that difficult.  Wow, was I wrong.  Having a conversation, or two, without the letter “n” is an extremely annoying and aggravating experience.  I did not realize how difficult it would be to just eliminate one letter from the conversation.

            I decided to have the first conversation with my husband.  I let him read the assignment first so he didn’t think I had gone mad.  He got a smirk on his face, so I knew I probably would have been better off to not let him read it and just try the activity.  Oh well, too late now.  We were discussing what we were going to do over Spring Break with my son.  I had to stop and think about every word I said before it came out of my mouth.  Of course, he was happy to ask me things that almost guaranteed I had to include an “n” in my answer.  What an aggravating experience that was.  We managed to get through the conversation, but it was not easy.

            The second conversation I had was with my son.  I decided this time to not tell him before hand what I was doing.  He was playing on his X-Box, so I sat down and thought I would ask him about the game he was playing.  Of course, it was Batman.  I could not call it by its’ name, so I referred to it as the bat game.  He kind of looked at me strange, but shrugged his shoulders and kept on playing.  I was trying to ask him questions about the different rooms he was going in or the villains he was fighting.  It took me so long to ask him anything because, just as with my husband, I had to spend so much time thinking about what I was going to say that it was not natural conversation.  He was getting really annoyed at me and kept telling me to just get to the point.  When the experiment was finally over, thankfully, I told him why I was talking that way.  He was relieved that I was not going to be like that all of the time.

            I must say that this was a much harder task than I ever imagined.  Thinking about everything that is going to be said and not using natural conversation was not easy.  I was very happy when it was over and I could use all 26 letters again.