Acronyms. I don’t like them. I work in education, and one of my first trainings included a page of acronyms to know. A whole page. Instant headache.

Divorce has its own acronyms. TRO, which became the PFA, comes to mind. When my attorney first suggested I file a PFA, I had to look up what it meant. Then I had to explain to my attorney why I did not want to file one. It was unfortunately before the rule of immediate surrender of firearms on effect of a PFA order. Enough said.

I don’t love acronyms in texts, either. Though I have become adept at translating text to speech into something intelligible.

Now, studying for my teaching certificate in special education, I have found that creating your own acronyms is a teaching strategy. Unfortunately, after ROYGBIV I get LOST. As in really lost, not an acronym. Though I can think of several acronyms for my ex, none of them are complimentary.

Some acronyms are funny. I can’t tell you how many jokes I have seen about GOAT. Some have more than one meaning. I have enough trouble with real words that change meaning over time. Like “Sick” to mean “really awesome.”

Grad school is challenging. Enjoyable, but a lot of work. This one is structured better than the accounting program I tried, but still the workload is sick. The original definition - as in, takes up a lot of time and causes stress.

Enter Chapter 12. It was an acromym palooza. I gave up counting the acronyms after #12, which was STAR. I think there are at least a dozen acronyms using the letters in S.T.A.R. alone. I found one attributed to Freemont Junior High School, “Stay Safe, Act Responsibly, and Remain Respectful.” Wiki gives us “Situation, Task, Action, Result.”

Honestly, I blame my own generation for this. We grew up in a time when fast was optimal, super fast was best. And we wanted everything PDQ. Then we got clobbered by the Great Recession. Because no one wanted to call it the Greater Depression, or the GOAT Depression. Honestly, no economic depression is very great. So I am studying hard and trying to get ahead of the next one. Acronyms and all.