And he’s like, and I’m all, and um, you know, like uh…

Have you ever like, actually listened to yourself speak? A few weeks ago I was out to lunch talking with a friend and, like, when I had finished what I was saying to her, I realized I had like, used the word “like”, like, like, a million times. See what I mean? By the time I was done talking I was annoying myself and hoped I wasn’t irritating her with my overuse of it. As lunch went on I noticed she used that word just as often as I did. Huh, I hadn’t been aware of this before. It’s a word so programmed into my head that until then I didn’t hear it or notice when it was used or even think anything was wrong with it. For some reason that day I finally started to hear it. And since then, I’ve been hearing it a lot. What used to blend into the conversational background hardly noticeable now pops out at me like a bomb whenever anybody else is speaking. I have learned that I am no where near as bad as some people when it comes to the like, you know, uh, “like factor”. As you can see, or should I say, hear, “like” is not the only repeat offender. “Um” and y’know in combination with a whole lot of likes bless our conversations with their presence on a regular basis. It’s been interesting listening to those around me the last few weeks. At least I am not alone in my like, habitual use of, you know, certain words and like, uhh, phrases. So with this new found awareness, I’m trying to be very careful in my speech and purposefully edit my words before they come out so I don’t rely on habitual speech patterns that might make me like sound like, like a valley girl. Duh.