Can You Hear It?

            It’s something so common that most people don’t notice it.  It can be found in TVs, or cars, or even people.  We’re trained to ignore it unless we go looking for it.  But when we find it, there’s no turning back.

            When you turn on your TV do you ever notice a high-pitched hum that just won’t go away?  You’ve watched this TV every night for the past 4 years but until this fateful evening you never bore witness to this wretched noise.  Well you better get used to it, because that noise isn’t going away.

            The same thing often occurs with people.  When you listen to someone speak, most times they sound normal.  One day, you’re talking to that same person and you notice that they inhale quite loudly.  Next thing you know, you’re consciously aware of each inhalation they take.  Similarly, if you realize that one of your friends uses the word “like” excessively, now suddenly the same speech that you once found normal seems horribly polluted with the often-misused word.

            How can it be that one event can cause something in our brain to change the way it acts so dramatically?  I wish I could go back to the days when my TV didn’t hum and my teacher didn’t use the phrase vis-à-vis every other sentence.