Word of the Day

I would like to talk about the concept of my family’s word of the day. It is not the typical family text or group chat, but an email sent every weekday morning by my father. It is a way to stay connected in a creative and sometimes thought-provoking way. It is now what I look forward to most in the mornings, checking in with my family who are all mostly living in New Jersey and waiting to see what my father thought we would all enjoy that day.

The ‘Word of the Day’ can be anything from a blurb on a historical event, a quote from a famous author, a thought he had on a news article, or now that he has magically learned how to operate Instagram (yikes), a funny and relatable meme. The whole point was to make us engage with one another in a different way than the common ‘is it Friday yet?’ or ‘TGIF’ text.

A few weeks back the ‘Word of the Day’ was a quote he saw recently that said, “To live a creative life, we must lose our fear of being wrong.” As I read this on the green line on my way into work, I immediately thought about how this was relatable to a project I have been working on.

Recently, I was asked to join a new IS Newsletter committee to help create and design the email template in Bananatag and the communication site on SharePoint that would be the home base for all The AdvISor’s content (be on the lookout for our first newsletter!). I had never worked in these tools before and was excited yet scared to take on this new challenge. I was not a web designer and did not think of myself as the most visually creative person, but as the weeks went on and the team finalized the first edition’s content, I found myself enjoying this new responsibility. I found excitement in creating the platform for the interesting articles and news the IS newsletter committee found important for the rest of our DFCI community to read about and learn from. I tried to forget about the fear of working in tools that were foreign to me and to enjoy this new task.

Now, not all ‘Word of the Day’ emails have a lasting effect. On Friday we received, “Does refusing to go to the gym count as resistance training?”, and for me, it did that afternoon. But having the five emails a week between my family, to read a provoking quote, a funny message, or watch a YouTube video, and discuss with one another has been a welcomed change of pace from scrolling through Instagram on my lovely commute into work every morning.

By: Bridget McLaughlin