If you have ever lived with me, shared an office with me, been in class with me, or just been near me while I was writing a paper, you probably know that I am obsessed with finding exactly the right word for any given situation. I am literally uncomfortable until I find a word that I'm looking for. It's like The Princess and the Pea, if the mattresses were essay pages and the pea was an ill-advised word choice. It drives me crazy when I can't put my finger on what I'm trying to say. I search frantically through the thesaurus, I ask my friends, I ask random people who happen to be nearby. It can get ugly. And I'm not someone who is blessed with the ability to just leave it, move on, and come back to it. No. It bothers me. The wrong word dances around in the back of my head taunting me. It becomes like a game of Where's Waldo. One of the really hard ones. One of the ones where you kept spotting the same guy over and over again and had to keep reminding yourself that, no, that is not Waldo, but that other guy you keep pointing at. It is so frustrating. This obsession with finding "the exact right word" (as Ezra Pound would have it) has only intensified with thesis writing. I'm working on my proposal right now. It doesn't get a grade. It does have to get vetted by a committee. I am agonizing over every word choice because I have to clearly communicate my ideas to a whole group of people. It's a good exercise in articulation, but, man, it is tough.
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