Estoy exitado por ti

I was having a conversation with a young lady who was telling me that she was only a few months away from graduating from nursing school.   I thought that was pretty cool, it must be an exciting time in her life.  

A quick flashback reminded me of how I felt when I was on the brink of accomplishing something significant in my life, and I decided to tell her that I was excited for  her.  So I said... 

Estoy exitado por ti
I'm excited for you.

Well, while that is what I said, it doesn't quite mean that.

Excitar means to be excited.  And emocionado means the same.  According to the dictionary, that is.

There's only one problem...some dictionaries neglect to explain one subtle difference.

Emocionado is the word you want to express excitement in this context.  

Excitado expresses excitement in a very different context.  It means to be sexual excited.

Let's revisit our example:

Estoy exitado por ti
I've got the hots for you.

Well, that sort of changes things a bit doesn't it?

What I should have said was:

Estoy emocionado por ti
I'm excited for you

Lo peor es (the worst thing is), I actually knew about the difference between those two words, but somehow the wrong word slipped out anyway.  Oh well, somebody's got to make people laugh, right?

Bueno, that's all for now. 

¡Hasta la próxima!