Yours truly...

I hate it when people use the word truly when speaking to me. I don't know why, but as soon as I hear it, I immediate think that the person is putting on affectations in order make me believe that they are being sincere. People who say the word as if their request should suddenly be honored because they have stated that they truly feel a certain way drive me crazy.

When someone says this term, it makes me feel like they are basically saying: "I am being truthful now, but normally when I speak to you or ask you for things... I lie." Or, the other way the term could be used to make me cringe would be when someone is trying to show their passion for a specific issue, as if that by stating that because they truly believe something means that I - and everyone else in the world - should believe the same thing.

In fact, I can't think of a single instance in my existence when I have ever heard the word used in a sentence when I've not applied a negative connotation to the word. To me, it sounds fake and it irritates me. I don't know why...perhaps there was some point in my life when someone promised me something truly and then it didn't happen...maybe I decided subliminally that the word was misleading...maybe it's the fact that I don't like the people in my life who normally use the word...maybe it's the fact that I just get irritated by stupid things, but I let them bother me enough I feel the need to tell others about it...even if only in a blog read by two other people who I'm pretty sure are bored with what I've put out there so far and won't keep stopping by unless I get a little more entertaining over here...

I don't know why...but the word drives me crazy...

Removal from the Lexicon

A couple of years ago, I attended a conference in Arizona for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society and when I met up with my School and Youth Coordinator I asked her how things had been going. Candidly, she told me that if she heard the words "Amazing" or "Awesome" one more time, she was going to hurl. I laughed with her and then told her she was amazing. Good times...

During a swim at my mom's pool a while back, I was chatting with one of my sister's friends and noticed midway through the conversation that many things in her world were amazing.

At the end of the school year, I heard NPR do a piece on graduation speeches. In one of the speeches, the key note speaker pleaded with today's graduates to remove the words "actually" and "amazing" from their vocabularies and help the future by doing so.

So, I started to pay attention. In my day to day, I probably hear the word "amazing" 10 - 15 times. During the first day of school (for the teachers), I kept a tally of how many times the term "amazing" was used. It had been used by my various administrators 27 times before we were let out of our morning meetings.

Now I'm removing it from my lexicon. I've been working on it for a while now, to be honest. I think when a word is overused like this it loses its meaning. Dictionary.com defines amazing as such:

a·maz·ing /əˈmeɪzɪŋ/ Pronunciation Key [uh-mey-zing] – adjective - causing great surprise or sudden wonder.

I believe the whole idea of surprise and sudden wonder is gone from the definition. I am not an amazing teacher, rarely do I surprise my students. I am not doing amazing things with my department, in fact, I sincerely doubt I've caused any of them sudden wonder.

And so, I'll not be using the term any longer. Not unless I've been absolutely stunned or caused to ponder something at great length will I refer to something or someone as amazing. Instead, I'll try to figure out a different term to describe the situation instead of being lazy and saying things are amazing.

Oh god, and don't get me started on people saying something is truly amazing...I've already discussed my issue with that term...