#1 In search of synonyms?

One Friday evening, I began to tell my dad about this series of writings I was compiling and then going to share on my website. While I told him about said writings, he looked blankly at me on FaceTime, and said “You overuse the word dissonance”. I’d be lying if I said it didn’t catch me off guard. Why? I would need to explore that more, but I am sharing this interaction because I believe that it can eloquently help to explain why despite learning that I may I overuse the word ‘dissonance,’ why I am going to continue to overuse the word ‘dissonance’ and continue to write within the parameters of this series Dissonance: A collection. 

This word embodies much of who I am, what I feel, and how I see and understand the world. It captures the internal conflict I feel nearly every minute of every day. It speaks to the duality of my identity—confident yet insecure; smart yet know nothing; wise and naive; thoughts versus feelings—a realist and also an idealist. Dissonance is the feeling I have between each of those truths. They counteract one another and make the black and white turn to grey. Dissonance to me is social life. It is differences in perspectives and experiences. It is the relativity that sociological thought it. It is both sides of a coin. It is both versions of a story.

I did, of course, push back towards my dad’s-painfully-truthful-comment. I felt that if he was going to plant that seed in my head—where, now, every time I say, think, feel, or experience dissonance, I will feel like one of those annoying people who overuse a word—then he needed to offer me suggestions for synonyms. He did a mediocre job at offering alternatives, which he knows, but fortunately, it supported my argument. That being that few words can replace that of ‘dissonance’. It has a powerful meaning, at least in my life, so this collection of writings will prevail.

However, I should add that these writings have more purpose than simply my satirical reasoning. I hope that my writing can inspire thought, interesting conversation, or, selfishly, I hope that it can stimulate new internal dialogue. And so I hope that my continued overuse of the word ‘dissonance’ challenges your thoughts or simply serves as a short read that evokes a range of feelings or thoughts.

So, cheers to dissonance.