I have a new goal. I shall attempt to remove the word "like" from my vocabulary except in the case of proper grammatical usage. This will be a difficult task, but I believe in myself. I very nearly accomplished this very thing my freshman year of high school when a friend of mine started counting the number of times anyone said "like" in a conversation. It makes people aware of how often they actually use that word improperly as a slang word. "Like" is a verb, as in, "I like potatoes." It is not a place-holder type of word to be used when one cannot think of anything else to say. People do this when they say things such as, "Then, like, I went to the fridge." It serves no purpose in the previous sentence except to give the speaker a moment to pause and think of what she actually wants to say. It should also not used to make a sentence sound more indirect. A good example of this is to say, "It's, like, a big bird." instead of just stating, "It's a big bird." Most people use this technique to show that they may or may not be speaking literally, or perhaps to show that they are slightly uncertain of their statement.
In pretty much every case, a person will sound much more intelligent and sure of their statements in a conversation without using the word "like" for no particular reason. I plan to accomplish this difficult feat (for it is in fact much more difficult than it sounds), and I refuse to give up until I am triumphant! Honestly, it's just that this is a rather embarrassing habit, and it always makes me uncomfortable when it's brought to my attention. So I shall rid myself of it and be much happier (and more assertive in my speech). Wish me luck, Ghost Readers!
Thanks for reading about my odd choice in goals :).
TTFN!
Victoria
PS: I dropped my boring art and colonialism class today. I'm very happy with this development.
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