I find myself incapable of resisting the delectable combination of chocolate and peanut butter, tickling tiny toes, and completing multiple choice personality tests. Perhaps it’s the puzzle of trying to figure out what I have in common with a pair of cotton pajamas, a Golden Retriever, and a Daffodil that swells the intrigue? Or maybe it’s because I have never taken one that lived up to its promise of defining me? Regardless the why and despite the let downs, I still take the tests.

I once completed a most unscientific ditty entitled What Punctuation Mark Are You? The title screams DO NOT TAKE ME SERIOUSLY. But is there a writer on the planet who could live without knowing what punctuation mark she most resembles? So I did what any respectable grammar-loving gal would do…I checked five boxes and hit submit.

My result? The comma.

At the time, I didn’t get it. I felt like I was more of a question mark. After all, I certainly have many questions. But now, the more I think about that nonsensical little quiz, the more I think it was right. I am a lot like the comma. But not because that is really my personality trait, but because there is a little comma in all of us.

A comma can be sensitive. It likes to be included…needed…but not overused. An out of place comma stands out louder than an exclamation point. A personified comma would also be a peacemaker of sorts…someone who brings others together.

Those traits mimic many of mine and probably a few of yours. But I think what I most have in common with the versatile comma is that I am unfinished.

Commas are imperative when listing a series of items. They separate the items and let the reader know that there is more to follow. Also, sentences never end with a comma.

I am not yet a completed work. There is so much more to my complicated story…more to add…more to understand. On my own, I am incomplete, but I know that the best is yet to come.

“And I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns.” Philippians 1:6

If you were a punctuation mark, which one would you be?

by Angela, Becoming Me

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