Further Up and Further In

Hyphens are crucial when you are playing a word game like Catch Phrase or Scattergories because they can make two words into one word or at least, give you enough leeway to convince your opponents that they do. They're also used for putting between people's last names, writing numbers out, etc. At this point, you might be thinking, "oh, great. Is she really writing a whole post about grammar ? Give me a break." Yes, this is about grammar and no, I'm going to talk more about than punctuation. The use of a hyphen is crucial to my identity. First, let me tell you a short real life story. Recently, I went to the dentist and the hygienist, a Latino guy, conversationally asks what my ethnic background is and I tell him Chinese-American. He proceeds to ask if I speak Chinese, an incredibly common question for me, and I say no. He replies, "well, then you're just American. People tell me they're Mexican and they don't speak Spanish so I say [to them]...

"You're doing really well and working super hard." "You've totally been rocking out at this job." "Wow, I definitely thought you've been here for longer. You seem like you’ve totally got everything under control." "You're a natural with the kids and they seem to love you." These were sincere remarks and ones that should send my spirits soaring and boost my confidence since I've only been doing my job for 4 months. Yes, I am young but I'm taking care of 5 little girls the best I can and they are still alive! (kidding) In all seriousness, I've been managing schedules, doing daily paperwork, dragging kids out of bed in the morning, pushing through 1st grade homework, dealing with the full spectrum of negative and positive behaviors, and everything else that comes with caring for little ones. It's been super intense and challenging to say the least. I've learned a ton about myself, kids, social work, a...