April Awakening: Day Three ⛅️
“Words are overrated,” someone once told me after I was desperate to hear the right words from them. I never forgot it. It was almost an insulting statement, considering how important writing is to me. Sometimes all I have are my words, and they’re all I’m going to have at the end of my life. I’ve been a lot more careful with them as of late, especially when I write things here. I want to take care and make sure I’m choosing the word that fits. Not only by definition, but melodically as well. It doesn’t always work out as well as I hope, but I’ve got a pretty good ear for it at this stage in the game.
One thing I think is interesting is when I’m at work, my words disappear. I use a ton of abbreviations when I talk with my coworkers. Thank You becomes TY. I’ll give a LOL or a ROFL here and there. A fun one is WDYM: What Do You Mean? And the strange thing is, everyone has started adopting my melody. Even the new Production Assistant started saying TY over topline. It’s a thing that’s happened before; The more in tune people are to my frequencies, the more we all start acting like one another. And that seems to show up in my speech more often than not. I’m just glad it all happens through words, as they’re the least overrated thing in my life right now.
And it’s not just the written word, either. When I was at the border in 2021, my affirmative catchphrase became “A hundred percent.” I said it about everything, as I wanted to show my host and the crew just how on beat I was about what we were doing. Even in that short span of time, everyone began adopting this phrase, even my host. While it was a nice thing for me to be aware of, the realization was twofold: I could be an influencer when I needed to be, and this progression runs both ways. People’s words and feelings penetrate me just as much as I think and see mine doing. It may not always be as evident, but I’m left with an earworm jingle that I just can’t get out of my head. That has to come from somewhere else outside my own song. And I’m just happy to share it with the world.
It’s a nice thing when you march to the beat of your own drummer, even if you’re watching the others get credit for your rhythm. At least you know you had it once upon riff.
balanced & fair 