I never fully understood a semicolon's purpose. I never used them in my writing because of how complex they seemed and how many rules accompanied them. It wasn't until the ninth grade when I finally understood the meaning of a semicolon; to add more to a sentence that could be finished.
Although the grammatical aspect is extremely important, I'd like to share a more meaningful way the semicolon can be interpreted.
The semicolon, in a way, also represents life, just like the two sentences that could be placed on their own, the author decides to add on to the first thought in order to extend and better connect their ideas. Relatively speaking, in times of despair and lack of faith, you feel like the author of your own life. Life is tough. Life causes you to do things you never thought you would do and takes you down paths you never thought you'd go down. You get stuck in situations where you feel like nothing is going your way, almost as if life would be better off without you; that ending your story would be better than letting it carry on. This is how I felt my ninth grade year of high school; I was suicidal.
Many people believe suicide is a cowardly act. How could I possibly want to take my life when there are so many other people out there who care about me? When there's a God who created me with the sole purpose of shaping my life and using me to glorify Him? My honest answer: I'm not sure. I had always thought of suicide as a cowardly act as well, like a last resort to nothing going your way, but once you're taken over by it you become numb to the common definition and create your own that seems much more promising: a happy ending to a not-so-happy life. I'm not saying I wasn't privileged, because I was and still am, but these thoughts and feelings consume your entire being, changing the way you think and see your life and its worth.
There's something really cool about my story, though, and it's that I met Jesus while I was suicidal. I would've never believed that my life should be continued until I formed a relationship with Christ. I longed for it all to be over and to be free, but I chose to follow Him and continue my story and He made me free. I went from attempting to end my life to weeping out of thankfulness that I was given this life to live. As the author of my story, I wanted to insert a period, but when I gave God the pen, he inserted a semicolon instead.
A semicolon serves as a reminder that nothing has to be finished. My first sentence represents my past that is finished and made new in Christ, and the semicolon illustrates my new beginning. Despite being oblivious to the rules of semicolons before, I was given the greatest grammatical lesson by God on how to utilize them through my own life.
On Sept. 20, 2015; I got ";ust breathe" tattooed on my bicep, reminding me that I have an entire story left to tell. I have an entire life left to live for the man who died a righteous and merciful death for me. Not one out of depression, but one out of pure love and loyalty to The Lord; and that's the only death I ever want to endure. The semicolon is not only a useful writing tool, but a powerful punctuation that gives opportunities for new beginnings, new stories, and new life.
