Obsessing with words

I wake up every morning to a large whiteboard hanging on my wall. It’s the first thing I see when rising from my slumber. There’s nothing special about the whiteboard itself. Instead, it’s what’s written on the whiteboard that is pertinent to my post. My whiteboard is covered from corner to corner with words–lots and lots of words. In recent years, I’ve become obsessed with vocabulary, and it’s been instrumental in improving many facets of my life and culminating in a better me.

The origins of my obsession with vocabulary trace back to a chat I had with a former boss when I was around nineteen years old. “This company is so parsimonious with its budget,” said my boss. “Parsi-huh? What does that mean?” I asked him. I was utterly perplexed by this alien word. I don’t remember his response verbatim, but it was incredibly patronizing, belittling, and left an indelible impression on me. I was so frustrated and pissed off that I would try to the best of my ability to never feel that incompetent again.

    After that experience, I began to save every dumbfounding word I encountered in some capacity. Every single one. If I don’t recognize a word, I immediately add it to my whiteboard and look up the word’s definition. If a professor uses a word I don’t know, I jot it down in the heading of my wide-ruled notebook paper. If I’m out and about and can’t reach my whiteboard, I search for the word on Google, screenshot the definition, and save it in my iPhone. No joke, my iPhone's photo album has around eight hundred and fifty saved images of word definitions.

The method to my madness isn’t based on science and whatnot. It’s purely anecdotal. Writing and collecting words forces me to confront words every day and internalize them. The words virtually become inescapable. They’re there when I wake up, they follow me to work and school, and accompany me to bed. There’s only one way to make peace, and that’s to learn them. It’s that simple.

    I like to challenge myself to have a general understanding of every word I encounter. The English language is incredibly complicated and convoluted, so mastering every word in the dictionary is entirely unrealistic. I don’t require myself to use all of the words I save in my day-to-day conversations, but I challenge myself to possess a general understanding of what the word means and how to use it in the event they do come up.

    My obsession with words has had a profound effect on my life. My communication and writing have improved exponentially, and as a result, so has my confidence. While nobody would ever confuse me for a linguist or expert in Etymology, I have at the very least elevated my vocabulary to a level where I feel comfortable with myself. I still get baffled by words all the time, but it happens less frequently. The struggle with vocabulary is a perpetual one, and I look forward to continuing my vocabulary obsession with efforts toward becoming a better me.