Words have labels on them.
They have names.
And I have a habit of stealing them.
I notice the words appear after being around certain people for certain amounts of time. Some people pick up traits, or habits, or gestures, or - in my case - strange and specific phrases.
I will notice myself speaking differently from year to year. Not only because of words I pick up from books, or the internet, or from just getting older, but they are very specifically not mine. They may seem familiar. They may seem ordinary. But the thing is, I know exactly who they belong to.
People in my life primarily live on in these words which I continue to use after they leave.
To me, the words have faces. They have cracks in the sidewalk and a flower that isn't mine. They have a swingset in the rain and a bump on my head. They have a glistening eye-roll and a smile and a light shrug of the shoulders.
Every time I find myself, for the first time, picking up a stolen word, I swallow it and step back, astounded from where it came. As if whoever I said it to will gasp and point and whisper That's so-and-so's word. ...How do you know so-and-so? Where have you been lurking?
It's like crying at a funeral you weren't supposed to go to.
But every time, whoever I'm talking to just acts like it's mine. Like, "Oh, that's a weird thing to say. Haha." But it's okay for Shady to be weird, so they let it go.
Here are some of my own personally stolen words:
You wouldn't tell the difference, right? Okay, maybe for a few, but overall the words seem to be mine. They don't seem like they've come from specific individuals and bad habits, right? You see what I'm saying?
I'm telling you though, words have labels.
I'm probably stealing already stolen words here. They've got as many names etched into their letters as a retired library card in the back of a worn-out book.
So, maybe it isn't really stealing. Maybe it's more like... borrowing.
Either way, we all do it.
MORAL: WORDS LAST LONGER THAN PEOPLE, AND IF YOU HANG AROUND WITH TWELVE-YEAR-OLDS WHO SAY 'FLUBS' ALL THE TIME, YOU'RE PROBABLY GOING TO BE AT SOME CLASSY WEDDING SOMEDAY AND SAY IT AROUND A BUNCH OF CLASSY LADIES AND LEARN THAT YOU PROBABLY SHOULDN'T HANG AROUND WITH TWELVE-YEAR-OLDS WHO SAY 'FLUBS' ALL THE TIME.
They have names.
And I have a habit of stealing them.
I notice the words appear after being around certain people for certain amounts of time. Some people pick up traits, or habits, or gestures, or - in my case - strange and specific phrases.
I will notice myself speaking differently from year to year. Not only because of words I pick up from books, or the internet, or from just getting older, but they are very specifically not mine. They may seem familiar. They may seem ordinary. But the thing is, I know exactly who they belong to.
People in my life primarily live on in these words which I continue to use after they leave.
To me, the words have faces. They have cracks in the sidewalk and a flower that isn't mine. They have a swingset in the rain and a bump on my head. They have a glistening eye-roll and a smile and a light shrug of the shoulders.
Every time I find myself, for the first time, picking up a stolen word, I swallow it and step back, astounded from where it came. As if whoever I said it to will gasp and point and whisper That's so-and-so's word. ...How do you know so-and-so? Where have you been lurking?
It's like crying at a funeral you weren't supposed to go to.
But every time, whoever I'm talking to just acts like it's mine. Like, "Oh, that's a weird thing to say. Haha." But it's okay for Shady to be weird, so they let it go.
Here are some of my own personally stolen words:
You wouldn't tell the difference, right? Okay, maybe for a few, but overall the words seem to be mine. They don't seem like they've come from specific individuals and bad habits, right? You see what I'm saying?
I'm telling you though, words have labels.
I'm probably stealing already stolen words here. They've got as many names etched into their letters as a retired library card in the back of a worn-out book.
So, maybe it isn't really stealing. Maybe it's more like... borrowing.
Either way, we all do it.
MORAL: WORDS LAST LONGER THAN PEOPLE, AND IF YOU HANG AROUND WITH TWELVE-YEAR-OLDS WHO SAY 'FLUBS' ALL THE TIME, YOU'RE PROBABLY GOING TO BE AT SOME CLASSY WEDDING SOMEDAY AND SAY IT AROUND A BUNCH OF CLASSY LADIES AND LEARN THAT YOU PROBABLY SHOULDN'T HANG AROUND WITH TWELVE-YEAR-OLDS WHO SAY 'FLUBS' ALL THE TIME.
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