What Punctuates Your Life?

I was chatting with Sarah this morning, who has indicated on her Facebook status that she is a squiggle. I asked her what that meant exactly, and she told me that it's like her curly hair and her blog picture, but also like life - up and down - these days. I could relate to that.

It made me think about the end of my group counseling class. The week before our last class of the semester, my professor asked us to think about what punctuation would be representative of the end of the semester. And life in general.

At any point, your life would be signified by a question mark, in which you have lots of questions and possibly not a lot of answers. Where you are exploring and curious. Or wondering and waiting. My time learning about Orthodox Judaism comes to mind for the question mark - wanting to know what it was all about, asking tons of questions. Also, moments in time when I am waiting for an answer - acceptance to grad school, trying to figure out where I am was going to live last year. A year from now, when I will have completed my Master's Degree and am trying to figure out what I want to do next.

It could also be punctuated by an exclamation point - exciting, adventurous, climatic. My adventures in sky diving remind me of an exclamation point. Also, this summer, which has already been full of simchas, could definitely be signified by that symbol of excitement.

I hope to rarely have a moment punctuated with a period. It seems that it would be incongruent even with my writing style to end something on such a closed note, since one thing always seems to lead to another, and on and on. But I suppose it must happen some time.

Commas are good for continuation and connection. I think Jewish Geography would be signified with a comma, because one connection always seems to lead to another. I also like commas, because I have a hard time figuring out where they should be replaced by semi-colons, and prefer just sticking with what's simple. And the fact that I don't do rules so much, so even if commas are in the wrong place - so be it! I don't care.

But the final option my professor gave us is the punctuations I identify with the most, and it is the punctuation that I chose to embody the end of that semester. The ellipse...it allows things to flow...it signifies no real ending...it symbolizes expectations of things to come...without really knowing what will...some loose ends, as there always seem to be...Yep...the ellipse seems to work for me...