Yippee!

Today was another installment of LEGO Club, and once again I had a room full of school-age kids eagerly creating masterpieces out of colored bricks. At one point during the 1 1/2 hour Club time one of the boys asked me how much more time we had left. I reassured him that we had about 30 minutes left, so he had plenty of time to keep building. Pleased, the boy said, "Yippee!" and hurried off happily to have some more fun with the LEGOs.

I don't think I've ever heard the word "yippee" used in a sincere, non-sarcastic manner in my life. Hearing it come out of a 9-year-old's mouth was actually kind of awesome. Such honest jubilation, complete with an exclamation point or two tacked on the end, is actually a pretty challenging thing to vocalize. Phrases like "hooray" and "yippee" tend to sound a bit cheesy and, dare I say, a bit old fashioned when said out loud.

We have other words in the English language that accomplish the same thing as "yippee" that are used much more frequently in our society. "Awesome!" "Yeah!" "Cool!" "Woot!" "Gnarly, dude!" (I may be being a tad facetious on that last one.) But I'll be honest, it totally made me smile in a completely happy, non-sarcastic way to hear a good old-fashioned "Yippee!" here in the library.