Words

Letters shuffling in my head. Words in and out. Rhyming. Synonyms. Prefixes. Suffixes. Spoonerisms. Dictionaries. Thesauruses. Words that I've said. Words that I want to say. The etymology of words. The origins.

Does anyone else think about this stuff? My brain is constantly thinking about this stuff. I LOVE WORDS. I love to think about them; to learn them; to use them.

Moosehead History: My first language was Greek. My family didn't feel the need to introduce the English language in the home because I would learn in school. So, off I went into Kindergarten with English as a Second Language. Hello? I remember when my teacher would right things on the chalk board (specifically the word watermelon) and I had to learn how to spell it, read it and know the meaning. I think because I had to learn it from scratch I had a slight deficiency in vocabulary.

As I grew older, I also grew irritated and frustrated every time I would hear common words that everyone else knew and I didn't. For example, plethora. I remember hearing a friend use the word, plethora, and I had to run home and look it up. :( My inadequacy in vocabulary fed many other inadequacies, like reading. I hated reading because I spent half the time looking everything up. So I made a plan.

I don't really remember when, but I want to say it was around 18? Maybe, I could be totally off, it could very well have been middle school or even college. I just don't remember. I bought a pocket dictionary and began a mission. I looked up five words a week and had to use them EVERY day. Oh yes! Every day! The task was challenging but well worth it. I started to read more on purpose and took the time to look up every word I was unfamiliar with. TIME CONSUMING!!! but an investment.

Through all these efforts my vocabulary grew tremendously and my reading skills were at a peripheral advantage. I found myself reading every day. I couldn't put books down until they were done. I remember spending an entire day or even two reading non stop to finish. I even remember being sad that books would end.

I guess this is the origin of my love of words. And books for that matter. Something else I picked up along the way: I will always ask what something means if I don't know, no matter how common it sounds.