Today, as I was scrolling instagram I saw an app dedicated to learn new, sophisticated words. It looked so tempting and visually beautiful so I downloaded and installed it. I was imagining how cool is it going to be to see and learn words from my wallpaper screen every day. I went through the installation process. It asked me all the questions about my level of English, my esthetics preferences, my interests, I even chose the voice and accent to read the words to me. I was getting hyped. And finally, in the last step this app shows me an amazing offer of 3 days for free before I pay $50 for it. I didn’t even got mad, but just so sad and disappointed. I felt scammed and fool. I should’ve known, I should’ve thought…
Then comes the reflection. So there was a need within me for learning more vocabulary. And in our times driven by efficiency, meritocracy and comfort, apps are there for us. They are made to fulfill the needs and profit out of it. And my question is, do they really fulfill our needs? Or are we all pretending they do? As I stayed in that disappointment and let it unravel, I started remembering how I used to print out pages of useful vocabulary for exams, and study word by word. Wordreference and diki.pl were the two tabs that were always open in my browser. I remember how I used to write words on sticky notes, with definition and exemplary phrases and post them all around me, to keep looking at them and repeating them until they became part of my vocabulary. I would push myself to use them in my daily life, always find ways to include them in my writing, because that is the only way to actually learn – with effort, time and dedication. And I remembered how much satisfaction it used to give me. And then what happened? I kinda stopped doing it. I became ok with my level of English. I just didn’t have that need any more. And now the need is back and I thought that an app can fulfill it? I thought all process was going to revive effortlessly on my screen? I hoped for a second. I wouldn’t know because my disappointment came before anything even started. But I assume it wouldn’t have.
Instead, I decided to fulfill that need in the old school way. I opened wordreference and as I was writing this post and searched for words like unravel and revive and used them in context, I felt a glimpse of satisfaction. My need did feel fulfilled. I didn’t need an app to do it for me. I didn’t need to consume words that appear on my screen and pretend that just by looking at them they would magically become part of me. Instead, I took my disappointment and made it into something I really needed. To be clear, I don’t think apps are complete waste. I guess that if you spend an important amount of time and dedication, they might probably do their work and be a great help. Because that is the trick in the end. Time, effort, intention and dedication. And there is just no other way around it. No shortcut. And because those are limited, we need to rearrange other things in our lives in order to engage with new ones. I like to think about it not as squeezing more into our daily life, but rather to let go of something else. I think that is a lot more realistic way of approaching a change and introducing new habits. As I found and name this new need in me, I will now try to do something about it. It took me more than an hour to write this post. I didn’t plan it, so I had to let go of work I was supposed to do. Which I will need to do anyways, but will have to let go of something else. And this is how it works. And that is the real price. And here is where we can decide what is really meaningful for us, what is worth pursuing, what really leaves us fulfilled. I feel fulfilled with that need I had for today. Disappointment is a great teacher. If we sit with it, break it apart, dig, let it speak and then take an action, make it ours.








