Potential

It's such an ugly word. To use the word "potential" is to indicate a gap between that and reality. It's moralizing, condescending, and totally oppressive. The next time sometime tells me I'm underachieving my "potential", I am going to tell them that I could "potentially" be a crack-whore on the street, dragging my five-year old malnourished child behind me.

Unless it's my thesis advisor. In which case I say, "Yes Ma'am."