Have you noticed that every conversation sounds like a secret code?
Three letters here. Four there.
LOL. BRB. FOMO. IRL.

By the time I decode one, the moment’s already gone.

I didn’t sign up to learn acronymic hieroglyphics.
I just wanted to connect, to laugh, to be human in English.

But these days, fluency isn’t about language anymore.
It’s about letting all that “text talk” loosen up
until it flows into a real, human conversation again.

And truth be told, I’m not even proficient in that yet.
Half the time, I’m just guessing what people mean,
hoping my laughter lands in the right place.

At work:

“Hey, Martrutt, have you seen the WDT?”

“No,” I said, pretending confidence.

Brain on fire.

Two hours later, I found a paper on my desk labeled “Weekly & Daily Trades”

Yet, I still don’t know if that was the WDT.

Then, it’s lunch time.

Coworkers were chatting fast, laughing, trading acronyms like confetti.

Paul arrived, “Hey guys, HRU?”

Each one of them gave him a different three-letter answer.

I smiled, nodded politely… and ran to the restroom.

Not to cry,

to Google it.

And just when I thought I was catching up, we got visitors from Florida.

My stepdaughters, all smiles and slang.

I asked a simple question, and one of them said,

“Oh, IDK. Maybe we could go to the mall.”

There it was again — the three-letter monster.

I said, “Sorry, what’s IDK?” She laughed and said, “ I don’t know.”

I turned back to my seat and laughed:

“Honey, I don’t know either!” 😂

My Final Thought

Maybe people in the U.S. still speak English…

I just need to find them, ASAP. 😂

Hey! As someone who fought to learn the whole alphabet,

I refuse to let the vowels go extinct.

But fine… I can adapt. CYO😉