The Importance of the Path Words Take by Amy

The Importance of the Path Words Take by Amy - July 2017 Scholarship Essay

I have never been the best at speaking. Even as a small child, I had my own “language”. I would forget certain words and simply replace them with others that may or may not have made any sense. As I grew older, I would blurt out answers in class that made sense in my mind, but the words always seemed to get jumbled and lost on the all-too-short journey from my brain to my mouth. I was the kid that people wondered “what is going on inside her head” or the kid who “should think before she speaks”. Soon, it occurred to me that maybe the nonsense that often came from my mouth was hindering me from whatever the “correct” way to use language was. So, in consequence, I turned to writing which, at the time, seemed standard, concrete, unable to mean anything else than the words on the paper. The words didn’t get lost like they did in my head, so they made sense. They stayed still.
As I grew older, I became fascinated with people’s fascination with violence and hostility. My peers obsessed over “fight videos” and any disagreement was destined towards dissent and circular arguments. What fascinated me more was how anyone who would try to stop the conflict invoked more hatred upon themselves than the hatred already present in the situation. I kept seeing this phenomenon on larger and larger scales, from debates online about climate change, to my dad talking about politics, to actual American politics. Unlike myself, these people were using words on a direct line from their brains to their mouths. Instead of getting lost and turned around along the way, their words seemed to pick up steam as they slid down, getting sharper and narrower like a needle until they only hurt instead of worked.
Fast forward to two years ago. My english class was reading an essay called “Spring.” No one understood it. We wanted the author’s points to be laid out in front of us like an already-completed puzzle so we could mechanically copy them down. We saw the beauty of the essay to be a simple bonus - the figurative language a bit of decoration, a fancy word to keep us awake. I never thought of writing as anything more than its dictionary definition until then. From then on, I saw the power writing held. It can teach lessons and give instructions. It can start arguments and make peace. It can shake someone’s once immutable opinions. I was exposed to the power of literature and was inspired to use it
If I had my own TED Talk, it would be about how to use your words. Not as a how-to guide, but as a way to change how you interact. If everyone used their words with the a quarter the care and consideration as writers of essays, the world would be a much more peaceful place. Words would flow from their brains to their mouths not in a straight line, but a wandering path, picking up information from eyes and ears to understand who their audience is, acquiring empathy. The words would roll down out of mouths smooth and fluid, forming arguments but allowing for compromise. They would reach other’s ears not like a needle, but like music. People will aspire not to achieve success when what they advocate for has “won”, but they will aim for the moment when their words speak to people in a way that unlocks something within them so they can see the reasoning behind their actions, so they can weave my words like the author of that essay did and not just convince, but empower whom they are speaking to.