Four-Letter Words

Four-Letter Words

I hardly ever cuss.
Actually, I never cuss. Ever.
Middle school is when everyone starts cussing. Middle schoolers, especially 8th graders, I think, are the worst. They don't just cuss when they drop heavy objects on their feet. Cuss words become adjectives, nouns, verbs. It's because of the sudden freedom - you're in class less, walking around more, seeing your friends more, teachers pay less attention. Cussing, though, isn't a part of growing up, in my opinion.
Now, I'm not saying you should be the prude that blushes and gasps every time someone says something that could be considered vaguely inappropriate, but there's no need to insert a four-letter word after every other syllable in a sentence.
When I got to thinking about it, I realized that this policy actually applies to the overuse of the words "dude" and "like." Using "like" all the time sounds just as immature and stupid as using "shit" all the time does. (Whether or not you believe "shit" is an actual cussword is beside the point. Feel free to disagree.) Cussing doesn't make you look like an adult - it makes you look like a trucker, or someone who watches too much late-night tv, or someone who can't control what they say. Or you end up sounding like a wannabe-rapper. And really, who wants to be a rapper?*
*Not to be offensive in any way. I, personally, do not want to be a rapper. This is not just because I am not musically-inclined in any way. (That's saying that you count rap as music, which I don't.)