Not long ago, my friend participated in a fundraiser, and she did not talk for 30 hours or use social media for 140 hours. As I’d imagined, this was incredibly difficult. Without words, she spent most of the day making ape-like hand motions and exasperated facial expressions. If we lost the ability to use words, this is likely where we would end up.

Words are my life. I need to write, tell bad puns, use funny-sounding words, and rant about everything. Everything I do requires some use of words. I don’t know any other way to communicate effectively with others of my species. Language is the way most humans choose to express themselves.

Everything from “hippomonstrosesquippedaliophobia” to “kerfuffle” is the articulation of emotions and thoughts that would not be easily conveyed through any other method. It isn’t that we’re annoyingly talkative people. We need to interact somehow.

Words are used to insult others, and to boost their self-esteem. They’re the elements of speech and writing that we use influence the people around us as well as our environments. Words can inspire people, and, on the contrary, they can discourage and thwart others. I like to think that it would be easy to simply stop talking and writing, but that would deprive me of the power to do what I enjoy most: making other people think.

I spend much of my social life arguing with my friends. Unfortunately, I occasionally lose these arguments to my particularly motivated social companions. Even though I am an extraordinarily sore loser, I enjoy the fact that even if I lose, I’ve made my acquaintances think about the bizarre explanations that have been thrown at them. Most of the time, that’s the fun part.

Additionally, with social media and educational lectures, language is also used to inform people. Without text-laden social network posts filled with irrelevant information and 50-minute oral lectures about the significance of bacteria, we could not dive head-first into others’ social lives or the histories of scientific concepts. Clearly, we can learn just about anything from our verbal relay of information. (Personally, I have an uncontrollable desire to complain to just about anyone who will listen.)

With the human language, we can do just about anything. We can use them to harm, help, humiliate, and even humble. Words are of tremendous importance to us. With them, we communicate, learn, and influence others. It is incredible to think that something as common as our vocabulary could affect things as monumental as our lives.

So, while I do occasionally enjoy the lack of communication and writing, I know that words are one of the most important aspects of our lives. I do not think that I’ll ever give up talking like my friend did. I shall be spouting terms such as “cattywampus”, “snickersnee”, and “bumfuzzle” for the rest of my life because I appreciate the beauty of our vocabulary (and because I can). Words will always be my life.