Do you know, The Oxford English Dictionary and The Merriam-Webster Dictionary– each contain about a half a million words.
Words
They have been dancing around my mind. They have the power to inspire us, seduce us into love, dismantle our hearts, and force us into war. My words are telling me I have to break down my foundation, let my walls crumble, expose myself completely, and from there I will find the true essence of what I need to say. The Dalliances of Hannah, my second short story has been the solo receiver of my overflowing words.
Over the past few years, I started paying more attention to the new vernacular of our generation, agro, preggers, selfie and vape. The latter two have been named word of the year in 2013, 2014 respectively.
These new words, definitely reflect the change in our social norm. Vape, which can be used as a verb and a noun emerged in our everyday lingo to distinguish the difference between smoking and e-cigarettes. Selfie, last year’s word of the year caused such an uproar; it changed the way we took photos of ourselves coupled with social media. I remember snapping self-portraits with my girlfriends at football games, parties and on our many road trips; one particular photo always comes to mind of the sunset during a Gator football game. At that time, our memories were captured with a Kodak disposable camera. We would click the black button and hope for the best. I am very thankful we did not have camera phones and the instant gratification desire for sharing our photos with the world for more reasons than one! That was the past. In the present, we share every moment of our lives in real-time.
At the last bookstore reading, (again only there to show my support) we were discussing the Myers-Briggs personality test, the last time I remember taking it might have been at UF. If you have not taken it since college, I insist you do so immediately, just for fun. I was surprised by my results: INFP – Introvert (55%), Intuitive (55%), Feeling (100%), Perceiving (64%).
Granted, studies have shown that the Myers-Briggs test really isn’t a true indicator of our reactions in any given situation. Nevertheless, the more I thought about it; the more it made sense. These four words describe my present self. It’s crazy, but I always thought I was more of an extrovert but no one person is a pure introvert or extrovert.
If you had to choose one word to describe yourself today, what would be your word? Take a few minutes…
See what it invokes in you, what it stirs you to think, to feel, to behave, to take action!
My word, without a doubt is Revitalize – I can say with surety writing everyday has revived me from the recesses of my comfort zone.
What word INSPIRES, MOTIVATES, MOVES you?
~Nerissa
Here we are, now what? 