Sark

I had a moment of great confusion about my life, today. While at Costco enjoying a Polish sausage and refillable fountain drink (for the low-low price of $1.50), I overheard an elderly couple discussing the poor state of America's youth and attributing it to the computer. The lady I overheard recalled how her granddaughter did not know how to write an exclamation point (!).

Naturally, my immediate reaction was, "Holy shit, when did I learn what an ampersand was?"

The ampersand, if you're not familiar, is that thing you get when you press Shift and 7 at the same time on a keyboard. This thing: &. While I can, more or less, trace back when I learned most things to general ages or periods of my schooling (kindergarten, middle school, high school, etc), I can't for the life of me figure out when or how I learned what the ampersand was. Could have been the 6th grade, could have been last year.

I don't even remember anyone telling me what it was called or meant, either. It feels as though I just sort of understood one day that "&" is shorthand for "and," which is strange because the ampersand isn't the sort of thing that you have an intuitive understanding of. [Brackets] too, and the distinction between them and (parenthesis). Also, these things: < > and { }.

Crap, what's the grave (`) for? Do I know what anything on this keyboard is for, anymore?