Quirky.
With my trip to China (and no English) looming, I have begun to think about the amount of words that I use in English and which ones I will miss in my loss of the English language. It may be weird to do such a thing, but realizing that I don't know how to say so many adjectives in Chinese that I use normally or even phrases such as "what are you packing in your suitcase?" proved difficult when I contemplated calling a friend and asking her in Chinese for practice. The best I could get was "What clothes are you picking up and putting inside ____ so you can travel?" .... how do you describe a suitcase if you don't know the word?! The best I could come up with was a box or square and I don't even know how to say that! Clearly I am starting to freak out a little. Starting to think about English brought up thinking about what my favorite words are and thus, quirky.
While quirky is not my number one favorite word in the world of words (pamplemousse is definitely #1), it is unquestionably in the top 10. I feel like the person who created the word quirky was almost trying to create a cool-sense of the word "weird". Think about it.
The Webster's Dictionary Online defines quirky as a peculiar trait...
while weird is of strange or ordinary character. Pretty much the same.
But I always see quirky as having a better connotation compared to weird. Most people are always more scared with being defined as "weird" rather than quirky. Why? I doubt it is because people think they are akin to the "Weird Sisters" from Macbeth which is where early humans got the idea for the denotation of weird. But rather, I think some people are just afraid to be considered different. They don't want to branch out on their own and do something funky.
My Mom has some of the craziest glasses you have ever seen. Actually, I sometimes consider them on the bridge of ridiculous. Grey ones the size of her face, pink and purple ones with little horn rims, etc etc. We always say that the older she gets, the more "colorful" her style gets. She buys them from this shop in Charlotte and took me there one day to check them out. No wonder she purchased ridiculous glasses, that was all they owned! I ended up getting a pair and even though they are no where near my Mother's "color", they are definitely not my usual taste. It was possibly the best decision I have ever made. What is wrong with having crazy glasses? At first I thought everything but post-glasses purchases I think nothing at all. I realized that my Mom loves purchasing glasses because they could help her to express herself and show that she isn't afraid of being a little "weird". Why be grey when you can show a little color?
What I have discovered is that by showing your colors, you will never be forgotten. In fact, my Mom gets more compliments on her glasses that I have ever noticed with eye glasses.
My recommendation for the day is to take a little step out and do something quirky (weird)--buy a crazy pair of glasses or paint your toes a color you love but your friends would never approve of. Just be yourself and that is always the best you can be. "Don't be scurred"! Live a little and stop worrying about being weird. But please still use the word quirky whenever you can... it is just too fun.
