I know many people who don't always say what they mean. While there may be someone who is absolutely head over heels for macaroni, do you really love macaroni? Are you actually in love with those shoes and are you really dying to have them? I know these are over-exaggerations used to express the magnitude of our affections towards certain things. When I say I love chocolate chip brownies, I am trying to express the exact giddiness I feel when I finally consume that rich chocolate goodness. But am I doing my brownie any service? What about the other things I claim to love? Is the love I have for my family the same love I feel towards that brownie? Yes, the brownie is probably fantastic. But do I "love" it? Have the words we used become cliches and meaningless?

When I tell my friend I love them, am I repeating the words I always say? Do they understand the deep care and admiration I feel for them? Does "I love you" display the amount of respect I have for their dedication and perseverance in school? When I talk, I want to be mindful of my words. I have the entire English language at my fingertips. Dictionaries and thesauruses exist to help me find the word I actually mean. I could say the brownie brings joy to my soul when I taste its rich and succulent chocolate chips. I could talk about the tears of joy that flow from my eyes when I take my first bite. I could tell you I bounce with glee when I envision myself swallowing my final bite. But I don't know if I love the brownie. When I reflect on my word choices, there are often better ways I could have said something to clearly emphasize my meaning.

Then, perhaps, many things would not be taken out of context. Getting a text would not be the next round of "guessing what this person meant" or "what kind of tone and inflection is used today?" We have this complex language at our fingertips, and I encourage you to take advantage of it. I don't know if there is a specific word for everything you could ever mean or feel. Perhaps the perfect word is an illusion, so we settle for the easiest word. That is not to say that sometimes simple is bad. Sometimes the simplest words are the clearest and concise ways to get our message across. Using the longest and most complicated word may actually confuse the meaning of the sentence. There is a balance between saying what you mean and being clear.

I challenge you to search for the clearest way to say what you want to say. I challenge you to say what you mean.