Collector

I have always been a collector. As a child it was miniature plastic figurines - Smurfs, Stawberry Short Cake, and Monchichis (definitely a child of the 80s); and of Barbies, and of course Cabbage Patch Dolls. Around my eleventh grade year, too old to collect toys, I started collecting words. Determined to read the entirety of the unabridged Les Miserables, I started to collect words. I tucked a 3x5 card in the book as my book mark and copied down interesting words, confusing words, foreign words. And soon it was 3 cards and then 4. Eventually I had 6, from that book alone. And then I started finding words everywhere. And copying them down on small cards or circling them within the pages of beloved books (yes, I am a defacer of printed books). Eventually I started running lists in the notes app on my phone. Always a finger tip away, close enough at hand to use, to hear, to rescue. In college I stumbled across a website that sadly, no longer exists, ''Save the Words". It featured words that had fallen out of mainstream use and were in need to be adopted to regain their meaning in the world. Prandicle. That was the word I chose to rescue. A prandicle is a small meal or snack. A pretty practical word; one that my family and close friends have added to our lexicon. I rarely use the words I collect in my own writing, sticking to words that are familiar, safe. But every once in a while I'll reach out for words like "cacophony" or "antipodal" - but most of the time, they are just hoarded away like forgotten plastic figurines and chubby faced dolls. Kept in the corner of my mind, app on my phone, 3x5 card - savoring someone else's use of a perfect word.