I was watching something on TV and was so irritated by twenty-something women constantly using “like”. It literally was nails-on-a-chalkboard to me. These women were very well-spoken except for the continual use of this word.
After changing the channel, I forgot about it until my husband came home and we started talking. Then there it was, the word I use throughout my conversation. I was disgusted with myself and vowed then and there to change.
I couldn’t help wondering how this happened. Maybe if I knew why or how it would help me to break this habit. I am considered articulate when I speak and in a professional setting it doesn’t happen. Similar to someone whose accent or stutter disappears when they sing, when I write there is no sign of this word I shall not say.
I am not from the San Fernando Valley nor am I a young woman. I was, however, in my 20s in the 80s when that crazy dialect became a popular trend, but I have always lived on the East Coast and not in Southern California! My closest friends are a few years older than me and do not pepper their exchanges with this ridiculous manner of speaking. Could these few years between us be the difference?
I don’t know about that but I do know that I sound ridiculous. Now that I am hyper-aware it’s not a distraction I welcome when talking to people I care about. It has to stop.
Is there like* a patch for this???
*I promise I did that on purpose.
