I cannot help but feel utterly amused about how a generation that harbours so little passion for anything is so quick at declaring what essentially is a borderline mental illness for completely insignificant stuff.
This makes me seem like a cynic but I am really missing a time when over-exaggeration was dismissed by my parents or peers in its very core.
Me: "Oh my god, I love this..."
Mum: "Astrid, it's a fucking dress, stop being so dramatic."
You get the idea.
Don't get me wrong, I am guilty of exaggerating emotions in equally the written and spoken word, hence why the idea for this post started brewing in my head in the first place.
And let me tell you this, there is nothing more annoying than being annoyed by your own daily vocabulary. Or more-so the apparent decay of it. Big words everyone. Whoohohohoooo.
So a pretty good step towards not sounding like a overexcited school girl is to substitute the words "love", "obsessed" and "so(oooo)".
Here are a few suggestions:
Like: In a way I feel more strongly inclined to use "like" in sincere contexts than "love". We have used and over-used the meaning of "loving something", it has essentially become somewhat of an empty phrase.
Great: I am not sure what happened to the good old "great". It seems as though in our society "great" just isn't expressing enough excitement. If I use the phrase "It was great", people always automatically assume that I am either lying or trying to be a sarcastic smart ass. I think it is time to restore this adjective's __________ (fill in the lame word game blank).
Marvellous: This is a tricky one, seeing as whenever someone uses this adjective in real life, all evil Disney characters pop up in my head. And don't tell me Ursula or Cruella DeVille would not totally indulge in using that adjective. "Let us continue with the marvellous activity that is skinning puppies and capturing mermaid souls"
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| OMG I LOVE her pastel hair! |
Enjoy: This must be my favourite newly discovered "Thou shall implement more often" - verb. Not only can I use it in conjunction with "utterly" (which IS without a doubt the weirdest yet most amusing word in the English language), but it also captures what we are essentially trying to say with our "love its" and "obsessed withs" - that for a very brief moment something we did/saw/bought gave us pleasure. We enjoyed the experience, but it won't drastically influence our lives or turn us into better creatures. In fact, three instagram photos down those things have most likely already slipped our minds.
Love and obsession really should do more for the human nature than that. They should influence us, should turn our world upside down and shake us hard like that dayum Polaroid picture. Shake it, shake it UHH OOHHH.
And with a completely intentional 'I made that Outkast song stuck in your head' - outro I shall leave you to it on this enjoyable (see!!!) Sunday afternoon.