Words

Everyone has their own language, so to speak, and words they use too often. Its funny though, you never seem to realize that you say something too much until someone else points it out to you. For example, I used to say (and maybe still do) "or something" at the end of many of my sentences. I was unaware of this until my father pointed it out to me one day. From then on, I would catch myself saying it all of the time--as if I would state my opinion but was unsure about what I was saying. Another word that I am guilty of over-using, as most people are, is "um". When asked a question, as if to give myself some more time to contemplate my answer, I begin my response with "umm...". If not "um", I resort to "hmm...", as if the person I am talking to needs to hear that I am thinking. These are all horrible habits that I really need to work on correcting. Instead of saying "um" or "hmm", I need to realize that it is OK to take a pause to think about my response. Instead of saying "or something", I need to just be confident about my statement--even if I am wrong, it shows a lot when you are confidence in your opinions and statements. Through paying closer attention to my word choice and recognizing the flaws in my language, hopefully I will be able to correct myself and ween myself off of these overused words.