Think before you speak, no really..

I write to you today as a former victim of teenage culture. Long before I had become aware of it, I was tarnished by a deadly disease; the very same disease that’s affecting millions of college students across the nation. One that most are unaware they harbor, until it’s too late. As one of the former infected, it is my high hope that I can spread awareness about this deadly contamination and help to liberate the truly ambitious amongst you.

We do not know its exact origins, but we do know that it manifests itself in the minds of young adults and is currently ruining reputations around the world. It feeds on the unintelligent and takes form during the pauses in our speech. The bastard child of “uhh”, this infection has sadly become a stigma for college students all over.

What is this terrible disease? The like, abuse of the word “like.”

This verbal contaminant is common to both Norcal and Socal students and spoken in every day conversation more often than the word “change” amongst Obama’s PR representatives. The troubling difference is that while they’re aware of their words usage, we are not.

Actually, we often don’t become aware of our plight until it’s too late. It’s only when we really begin listening to ourselves during job interviews, or hear ourselves speak in oral presentations, that we realize how ridiculous we really do sound.

Some people (myself included), use the word when they feel nervous in front of the class, some use it because they have the vocabulary of an 8^th grade teen. Whatever the case, college students need to make a concerted effort to ‘chill the f*** out’ with the word because its making us ALL look like complete tools.

Now don’t get me wrong, I am all for college slang and have great time making Southern California girls cry when saying ‘hella tight,’ but this disease has become just like, kinda like, out of control. Realizing the way you sound is only the beginning, after you do this it becomes even harder -- and mildly depressing -- to try and stop. Which is exactly what it is time to do.

While many of you can flip it on and off like a switch, some people can’t turn it off so easily; if at all. You will have to put in a massive amount of effort in order to change. Doctors recommend the following treatments to aid in the healing process:

1. Stop hanging out with and/or being a stoner.


2. Read.


3. Think more. Perhaps even before or when you speak words.

I seriously challenge you reading this to try to listen to yourself during conversation and really think about the words you articulate and how you sound. Hopefully the day will come when I can attend class and not feel the need to count how many times some girl says “like,” just to make sure I’m not going insane. I am not saying everyone reading this “word salad“ uses the word to death, but to quote Obama its “It’s time for motherf***** Change."