I got bullied at school for being nerdy and seeming bookish (no pun intended), so I still feel self-conscious of sounding like a smart-ass by using longer or more complicated words. Fortunately I usually balance it out by immediately tripping up over my words or making a typo.

(Mentioning being bullied isn't for sympathy I'm not telling a sob story here, I just had to provide context!)

Also it wasn't a humble-brag about being intelligent. The irony was I wasn't actually all that bright at school. I was completely average (still am). I was just geeky and had all the other features of being a nerd.

As a result I sometimes feel the opposite in other situations. I'm actually a clattering dumbass and I worry too much that I come across that way when talking to actual smart people.

Btw I'm also very aware that this is the very definition of a first world problem. I don't want to complain because I admit, it's something that partly comes from privilege. Part of the reason I can speak "fancy" is because I'm privileged enough to have had a good education.

(Hopefully that makes sense and isn't poorly worded, part of the whole point of this thread is that I don't always phrase things very well - I'm much better at other people's words than my own, hence why I ran a quote account for a while!)