First I would like to share with you a very laughable and ridiculous conversation I overheard at work the other day:
Boy- “Yeah, I would LITERALLY rather die. I mean literally die, like in the ground in a coffin DIE."
Girl- “No, I would LITERALLY rather die. Like, flee the country die.”
Boy- “No I would literally rather have my teeth pulled out from my head. I can see myself just sitting there being miserable but I would like it because it's not watching this.”
Girl- “I'm going MIA, skipping class, in hiding so I can avoid it all.”
Boy- “I would rather sit in a room with Magic Johnson.”
I think we all have a tendency to say stupid things every once and awhile. I am fully aware that people deserve a level of grace, in that every conversation a person has does not have to be up to the standard of an academic discussion. I am also aware that every conversation a person has should not be criticized nor consequentially infer their intelligence level. However, I must say that lately, I have found myself far too often overhearing absurd and obnoxious snippets of conversations like the one above.
Conversations that make me roll my eyes and dramatically gaze up to the sky questioning: what kind of world are we living in? Conversations where one equates getting their teeth pulled out to sitting in a room with Magic Johnson. I’m talking about the kind of overheard conversations that would make you cringe and want to turn around asking the person if they have had the opportunity for a proper education, and if so then they should really pay more attention in class and try to soak up as much knowledge as they can in order to counteract the slippery slope of incoherent slang, elementary diction, and menial vocabulary that they have fallen into. Yes, that’s harsh and maybe a conversation over coffee with a friend isn’t meant to be treated in such a way but imagine for a second if the person sitting at the table behind you and your friend wasn't as engrossed in their book as much as you think they are. And ask yourself, what if they actually couldn’t help but listen in as your above average volume level conversation has interrupted their reading and therefore they couldn’t help but listen in. Would you still say as silly of things? Maybe, but it’s worth acknowledging. Acknowledging that what you say and how you say it is heard by others.
I spoke earlier of grace, and yes, you can give yourself a certain amount of grace to simply have a conversation with no standards but personally… I think for yourself above anyone else we ought to raise the standards a little bit. We should try to hold ourselves to a higher standard than simply falling into the colloquial “Yeah” and “Sick” and try out “Yes” and “Wonderful” for a change. Challenging ourselves to avoid over exaggeration and overuse of the “literally’s” and “like’s”. An average person given the opportunity of a quality education spends the first twenty or more years of their life in school so wouldn’t you like to believe that we should be able to hold conversations of a higher intellectual level? As high school and/or college graduates we have been taught in numerous subjects, challenged to be well-read, well-versed, well-learned and even still our conversations often don’t rise higher than criticizing Donald Trump or mentioning the Kardashians latest drama? The number of people in the world without the same opportunities for education as the average person could certainly do a better service to your years of schooling than you would if that is all you choose to do with it. So try harder, challenge yourself, and watch your words.
