During my mission, I stopped using big words most of the time because no one uses them outside of academia, but of late I have reintroduced them into my vocabulary. The transition has not been without blunder. For example, on Tuesday when I told a group of Canadian boy scouts (who were the age of American cub scouts) that the celestial room is analogous to the celestial kingdom just as the instruction rooms are analogous to our life on earth. Oops. However, since I have access to the OED through my university, I have been committing to memory words to use in everyday speech. For example, in class we played a game in which we spoke about a werewolf, so I got to use the words lycanthropy and lupine. I was pleased that I knew a great enough variety of words to say that. Some words, however, like peregrinate and querulous, no one but me will ever understand.
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