Assimilation

I was arguing with my boo (the Goddess) last night about a new diet we're on when I noted something about her specch. People who have spoken to both of us say that were our voices not so different, they'd think they were talking to the same person. Which is expected. When you hang out with a person constantly, your mannerisms and sayings blend together. Same thing with Wendy and myself, we've originated (and spead) many new terms. "Disrespect", "hardbody", "(blank).com", our conversations are filled with words outsiders may not get. It's all a matter of the mutual influences we have on one another.

The same way we share terms and inflections that work, we each maintain our individuality. There are some terms Wendy uses that I just can't get to work out for me (i.e., "fried rice," I just can't do it) and vice versa. Same goes with La'Keyia. Or so I thought. I love my cousin dearly and I'm not saying she's weak by any means, she's just more malleable. We were talking last night and I noted that she sounded like one of her friends, Kanella. And I mean JUST like her. Like, if I didn't know I was talking to my cousin, I'd think it was Kanella. And it struck me as odd cuz I know La'Keyia is her own person, I just couldn't wrap my head around why she didn't sound like herself. And then I got annoyed cuz I hate it when I feel like people are losing their identity.

We're all unique and there's nothing wrong with picking up certain things, but cloning's not cool. Maybe I'm just that HARDCORE when it comes to breaking the norm that I want anyone I hold dear to be the same, I don't know but it IRKED me. Like I didn't even want to speak to her anymore (cuz there's this thing Kanella does when she talks that just IRRITATES me...but it's tolerable cuz I associated it as her "thing") and got off the phone.

Now, for argument's sake, I was irritable for a number of reasons. This new diet, trying to get to NY for my dad's family reunion, planning on getting Debbie's son to NY and getting Keyia's son back from NY. Babysitter's not my bag, I've done my bid, but we all know what a punk I am for family. So it could've been the lack of real food and stress that heightened my irritation, who knows. I did note how much she spoke like Kanella when we were in Miami but I brushed it off cuz I (was drunk) really didn't care. By the middle of the trip, Keyia was speaking like me and Wendy. THEN, by the end, she was speaking like herself.


I JUST realized this: speechwise, Keyia's an impressionable 17-year-old. She was saying, "Yo" like it was 1997 and I remember thinking, "Why is she speaking like that?" So I got it, people!! Keyia's a strong-willed, smart woman, she just never really developed her own sense of self in the area of speech!! Whew, that saved me quite a bit of blogging about assimilation!

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