“Synesthesia is where your brain automatically connects colors to things like letters, numbers, words, people’s names, and groups of people,” sophomore Avalyn Emerson explains. Emerson has synesthesia, which makes her associate words with colors.
Emerson said it’s often misunderstood by people who don’t have it. “Some people actually think I see the color, but it’s just in my head,” Emerson said. She said most words get their color based on the first letter, but the other letters in the word pop out to give it its shade and add to the color.
Emerson also mentioned that people don’t usually realize they most likely had it when they were little; it just goes away over time. “Most people have it when they’re little. It’s how they learn, but as you grow up it goes away but for some people it stays there.”
Emerson stated that even though this is rare, others who have it don’t see the same colors for everything; it just depends on the person. She also said that people who have the same names will sometimes be different shades of a color.
Some examples of her synesthesia are that the name Emma is green, the number 13 is blue, and the number 7 is dark purple. Emerson also mentioned that THS is light green. “I mean it’s red, white, and silver but the word is green,” Emerson explained.
