January 24, 2013

The One Thing I Want

For the past year and a half, my Wednesday nights have found me revisiting a life stage I would’ve been fine to forget: middle school. When I signed up to volunteer with the middle school ministry at my church, I did it mostly as a way to get involved. I had absolutely no idea what I was getting into.

I lead a small group of now 8th-grade girls, and it’s been challenging for me, the nerdy, low-key, introvert, to find ways to engage this group who are so very different from me. We’re separated by personality (the first time I said I read for fun, they literally fell off their chairs laughing) and by years, and I am consistently aware that we just don’t speak the same language. But what’s really amazing is that, somehow, God has been working in me and in them over the last year and a half. I’ve grown to love and enjoy each one of them, and I don’t think they hate me, either … oddly enough.

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January 10, 2013

On Exclamation Points

“Cut out all these exclamation points. An exclamation point is like laughing at your own joke.” -F. Scott Fitzgerald

Can I ask an honest question? What did the Period do to deserve such a bad reputation? When did everyone start thinking our old, faithful punctuation mark was so angry and sad? I’ve always found him to be a nice sort of fellow: simple, content, straightforward in the best sense. I mean, it’s not that he’s unhappy; he’s just not yelling about it, you know? I for one like the Period, but he seems to have gone out of fashion, replaced with his boisterous younger brother by people whose lives, I can only conclude, are just too exciting for him. Which leaves me, dear readers, sounding either bored or grumpy any time my proverbial pen hits the page.

Yes, anyone who has received a text message or email from me might have noticed a shocking lack of exclamation points. I say shocking because I assume most people are in a state of shock most of the time, either that or they are compulsive yellers. At least, that’s what their punctuation tells me.

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