#30DaysWritingChallenge: My Top 3 Pet Peeves

Temitope Ben-Ajepe
Sep 3, 2018 · 3 min read

It’s day 3 of this and this topic is a little hard because I seem to have a lot of them. I’ve decided to narrow it down to the ones that happen as frequently as on a daily basis. For which, I’ll never understand why.

3. Calling every one you meet ‘dear' for absolutely no reason. Correct me if I’m wrong, it’s just that I’ve always considered “dear” a term of endearment or a way to show affection for someone you care about and also a great way to start off a letter. So I don’t know why a complete stranger, or someone who really shouldn’t, would call me dear. These days, I detect a hint of condescension from it as well from people who are trying to be petty and failing miserably at it but this is not about them. I’ve opened WhatsApp messages and official emails from people soliciting my help starting with “hello dear”. Just so we are clear, calling me dear won’t increase your chances of making me want to help you to be honest. I’d most likely leave your messages unattended. If I don’t know you, I am not your dear. If we’re not all boo’d up in real life, I can’t take you seriously. It is what it is.

2. Word Crimes and bad spelling especially in official settings. I remember a thread that went viral about how poor writing skills in CVs of applicants finding work and the raucous it made. I see team ‘English is not a sign of intelligence’ hanging by the corner too. But intelligent people know how to maximize tools like the spell checker that would better their output, no? I don’t know, I don’t know but I’d like to think intelligent people try make an effort with these things because chances are, they won’t get a second chance to wow whoever they’re trying to butter up. How do people conveniently ignore the red squiggly lines that underline wrongly spelt words, they’re red for a reason! I can’t deal. People who come ‘first position' and can’t spell disciplinarian and a shit load of other words in a status update, please. Let me not even go into letter writing and epistolary skills and basic email etiquette. Psst.

1. People who chew loudly. Slurp. Those who want to give us an exact picture of the way mastication takes place in their mouths. I mean the full picture… the ones who swallow noisily in that we hear the actual gulp as the epiglottis slam dunks the food down the slimey gastrointestinal tract on its way to the stomach, then, you’ve killed me. You’ve killed and buried me to be honest and we can not be friends because I’ll never see any good in you. Then if the person is skilled to the point where they talk while doing all these, let my epitaph read, “Temitope lived for what she considered right and died trying to rid the world of bullshit”.