Today I’ve been thinking about words and how my favorite words have changed over the years. My first favorite word was ubiquitous. Soon as it attracted my attention, ubiquitous was suddenly everywhere, and so lost its attraction. Alacrity intrigued me when I was studying for the Graduate Record Exam, though I’m not sure why, except, perhaps, because it’s so contrary to my nature. I do nothing willingly, at least right away. I have to mentally prepare.  When I was reading House of the Seven Gables, in American Literature, I fell in love with aspect. Until seeing it used by Nathaniel Hawthorne, I thought the word aspect was merely a meaningless filler, sort of a little place marker, like 0, used by  inexperienced writers when they didn’t know what word to use. Right now the category of my favorite word is actually empty. I’m thinking about filling it with you. If you were a word what word might you be? And what might that word mean?

-Nettie Farris