The Right Words (At the Right Time)

I imagine everyone at some point in life has experienced what I am about to describe. I hope so, at least. There are moments in life, or days, or weeks, or months, or even years (Friends theme cue please) that just don't seem right. "Right," I realize, is a very vague term, but I'm not sure how else to describe it. You're not necessarily sad, or angry, or depressed, though those things may all be part of it. The true feeling though is that there's a hole somewhere that you need to fill. It's an anxiety that something is missing. I suppose we could liken it to that frustration when you can't find your keys at 5:00 in the morning and you have the distinct impression that someone, somewhere in the world is laughing at you. Or like the one day you come to class unprepared and it's the one day of the whole semester that your professor decides to check your notebooks. You sit in stewing rage as the slacker next to you whips out his notebook full of notes that he hastily threw together in the three minutes before class on the off-chance they'd be called for today. Whereas you, who possesses a notebook full of meticulous and detailed notes of every word that has fallen from the professor's mouth including his hometown and family history, will receive a failing grade on the notebook check because your notebook is on the floor of your room, open to where you fell asleep writing in it the night before after accomplishing the fifty other things you had to do that day. Do you know that feeling? Have you ever felt that way about life in general? It's maybe not as urgent, but it is more unnerving than any forgotten notes. What experience has told me is that most of us reach this point. However, that is not what I wanted to write about, (though it's taken me a good deal of lines to get to my point) nor is that the experience I hope everyone has had. Rather, I wish to delve into the most common antidote I have seen for this emptiness. It can come from anywhere; in fact, in my life it usually comes from the most unlikely of sources. Though its effects may not be permanent, it is enough for one to temporarily fill that gaping hole, whatever it may be. I'm talking about the right words at the right time. Now, what those words are, and when that time is depends completely on you. But I think you know what I mean when I tell of those moments when someone in our lives, or even a complete stranger, says that one thing - that beautifully simple and yet perfect scrap of human wisdom - at the time when our ears are most tuned to hear it. That moment seems to cure that empty, hollow feeling. It is as if the giver of such words has been granted to be the possessor of the secret of life for that one moment, the sole purpose being to pass that secret in a way that is shaped, drawn, and packaged especially for us. The words would mean nothing to anyone else; outside of that perfect moment, they'd probably mean nothing to us. Yet, the words come, the hunger is fed, and we can carry on with life until we become again famished for want of this human food. Not only do I think we all have moments to be fed by the words of others, but each of us has our moments when we are the givers of those right words. What's funny is that we probably do not even recognize that we have done so. Who knows how many hungry people we have fed with the words we have said? When have we held the secret to another's life in our lips without our knowledge? Whose life is better because of a few simple and costless words? Why am I an English major? Because I believe that words can change the world...they already have. And if we want to change the world, for better or worse, we have few other means to do so than in the words we choose to pass on.