Hello, My name is Valentina and I'm a Linguoholic

I knew I was never going to be a nuclear physicist from the moment it took a month for my 5th grade teacher to explain to me what decimals are using all sorts of educational tools, ranging from classic yellow building blocks to chocolate Smarties. I think it is because of this traumatizing experience that I cannot stand Smarties. Which is a huge pity since they come in all these funky colors and make your teeth look like a distorted rainbow. Yet, I don't think even the eventual epiphanies of "Oooh, 0.1 is one tenth of 1!" (even that sounds complicated), would have ever strayed me off the thing that I was destined to be. A lover, creator and player of words. A linguoholic.

I sometimes wonder whether people who for instance have a strong and omniscient passion for music think of things in term of sounds, musical tones, melody and harmony. Because my perception of the world if one giant novel that has so many fine and horrid pages to explore, so many delicious words and word combinations to come in touch with that let express every hue and shade of the story... I am, in fact, addicted to languages and their mediums of expression.

Of course, in today's society, nobody underestimates the almighty power of language any longer. It is everyone, fuels life and communication. But the love and addiction that I'm talking about surpasses this superficial level and takes things to a complete new... extreme. When I hear people speak, I think of synonyms, of novels, of authors, of phrases, themes, thousands of little universes within my mind form and create around a single word. Its like a little factory, designed for flexibility.

What I love abut this is that different forms of language that could be deemed as unclassy, uncanny and weird do not mutually exclude each other in this little factory of mine. I find invectives, words taken from other languages and strange coinages just as creative and interesting as the classical core of the English language. It is for its flexibility and fluidity that it's so beautiful.

Out of all the addictions that one can possess, I'm proud to say I'm a linguoholic. Severe one as well. Abstinential syndromes include raised blood pressure when hearing "Dude, that's trippy" 50 times a day. Beware.