Words and Friends

As I've been preparing the GRE (which I take tomorrow, by the way), I've realized that I don't really have that large of a vocabulary. I always knew that my vocabulary was lacking to some extent, but I'm beginning to realize how limited it actually is.

This was particularly surprising to me because I really like words and grammar and other things like that. One of my favorite books in the whole world is "Eats, Shoots and Leaves." I have a special place in my heart for etymology. When I learn a new word, I feel like I've met a new friend. It just turns out that I promptly forget that friend once they are out of sight. I think that my subconscious mind does this on purpose because that way I can squeeze every last bit of joy over meeting a certain word several times.

Honestly, I think that I do this with people too. It seems I re-meet the same people several times in life. The difference is that people sometimes get offended if you forget who they are. Yesterday, I saw a girl at church that I knew from Provo while I was passing the sacrament and she smiled and waved and I smiled back. After the meeting I considered looking for her, but I decided against it in the end since I couldn't remember how I knew her or what her name was. Had she found me, I would've tried to figure it out without having to ask her, but I didn't really want to purposefully bring that on myself. (As a side-note: As I'm typing this, I suddenly remember who she is.)

In any case, I'd like to announce to my mind that given that there are over one million words in the English language and 6,788,282,557 people in the world, if I can even remember the words and people that I already know, there will still be lots more to meet in the future.