My Trouble With Correct Commas;

You will notice I used a semi-colon here. (More on those another day, because they can also be a problem.)

I use a program which checks my word choice and punctuation. I use spell-check, but from and form are spelled correctly just not interchangeable. I also have searched the internet for educational programs on the use of commas and my sister has explained them to me countless times. I have even subscribed to motivational guides on how to express my own voice and ignore the old fashioned school of punctuation. These are good because they make you feel your writing is worthwhile, meaningful (at least to you) and, well, expressive. To top it all off, I read. All. The Time. I’m not sure I like that form of exclamation, but I see it– all the time. This inspires me at the same time it gives me cold chill in my gut because I can see my first-grade teacher, Miss Gripp, standing in from of our class clutching her bony arms over her flat chest, frowning at that bold statement. I’m old enough we learned cursive writing and basic punctuation early with a #2 pencil and double lined paper. Now it’s done with either thumbs and an emoji on a phone, or in an e-mail with odd abbreviations and more emojis.

But I digress.

I can tell you there are many, many writers out there writing away without the use of commas. Entertaining stories that I enjoy, and really that’s all that counts, right? Even if they don’t use a comma where I know damn well my sister would put one. It does bother me a little that I see where a comma should probably be, but am not really sure.

No matter what the others are doing or not doing, I want to be the rebel who writes from my heart and not worries about what a long ago teacher or even my sister would say. I want to write because I love it and not worry if I did the commas correctly. But I also feel as if I’m standing in front of the entire world showing everyone I am uneducated and a hack when I either misuse a comma or fail to use on. That’s the word I’m looking for, fail. If that comma is not there, I am a failure. (I wanted to pause between there and I, and as I understand it that’s what a comma is for. Among other things. )

The bottom line is— I have not done something I can be proud of.

Maybe, as I get older, (and I’m not sure just how much older I can get to be at this point) I won’t worry so much about the day I missed out on learning about commas, and just go for it and write.

By the way, I would really like for you to just read this without checking for comma usage.

Annie