When I was in high school- and was even more nerdy than I am now- I used to do the broadcasting for high school announcements. Yes, any opportunity to act like Nancy Grace- and I'm there. But I was still a self-conscious 18 year old, and I refused to go beyond the teleprompter. Now I wish I would have. How fun would that have been?
My mom always insisted that I have a little niche as a high school announcement broadcaster- if there even could be one. She proposed a "word of the day" segment. Every day ending the announcements with a word and definition of the day- to broaden the minds of the few people that listened to Midway High School Announcements.
Her favorite and only suggestion was the word: "Odious"-o·di·ous [oh-dee-uhs] –adjective 1. deserving or causing hatred; hateful; detestable. She continues to offer this word up to this day.
I constantly laughed in her face and told her "fat chance"- there is no way I would do that on live high school announcements-as if that wasn't enough of a dork stamp already. But now I realize how much that would have helped me- I should've embraced the dorkiness like I do now. Through my love of reading, I also had a love of words. Studying for the SAT was weirdly enjoyable for me. Mrs. Wells (my influential 9th grade History teacher) drove me to work on my love of vocabulary during SAT practice. Teachers and Professors had a profound impact on my growth as a student. I would never have sought out these words by myself.
It's something that I unconsciously continued through law school- picking up new words. Not great at grammar- or eliminating run-on sentences- but I DO love words. Now....If only I can get mom passed the word "odious".
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