Um, I'm trying to make a really important point.

Um, something is really having a negative, um, affect on my speaking.

And, um, it wasn't there before.

Why have I started using "um" again?

A few years back, like so many 20 year olds at the time, I used "um" and "like" excessively. Perhaps not to the Valley Girl level, but it was pretty bad.

So I put crap tons of effort into fixing my vocabulary. I learned how to use pauses instead of monosyllabic utterings.

And being in the business world has ruined me. I've recently noticed that I've started umming again.

Saying um is communicable. You catch it aurally. It leaves one person's mouth, floats into your ear and merrily implants itself into your brain. Sometimes it takes effect immediately. Other times, it lays dormant for weeks or even a year.

Then, BAM, you're umming like a stoner kid giving excuses about why his eyes are all red.

It's alarming how many people in the business world (and not just my business world, mind you) can't speak. They'll passionately express valid arguments, winning over the hearts and trust of important associates.

And then ruin it all with a drawn out um.

Their intelligence just flees out the crack under nearest door.

And their um lodges itself into my head and repeats itself sentence after increasingly-dumbing sentence.

So now the rehabilitation process gets to start all over again.

For those who know me and see me, if I say "um" and it's not used in an intended way, slap me. But not in the face. If I can't break this habit, I need my looks to fall back on.