Hi, I'm Semicolon
The semicolon is part of our punctuation team but, basically the awkward one. Much like your drunk uncle at Thanksgiving or the coaster set your mother-in-law gave you, you know it has a purpose, but you don’t really know what to do with it.
It's a Metaphor
In grammar, semicolons are used to join two independent clauses, or two complete thoughts that could stand alone as complete sentences.
Project Semicolon, which was founded in April 2013, has a more reflective definition of the often-misunderstood symbol: “A semicolon is used when an author could’ve chosen to end their sentence but chose not to. The author is you, and the sentence is your life.”
Because the semicolon continues a sentence rather than ending it, it often has a highly symbolic meaning to those who struggle with depression, suicide, addiction, anxiety, and self-injury.
Far too many of us in our community of ex-cult babies have been lost to depression. We wanted to honor this by adding it to our Butterflies and Bravery logo as a reminder that our story isn’t over yet; there’s so much more to come.
May is Mental Health Awareness Month
here in the United States, as well as Butterflies and Bravery’s birthday month seemed like 2 good reasons to roll out our new logo. It’s not a big change, but it’s a big change.
Interesting fact, since we’re talking about our logo, we only recently found out that our logo colors, which we chose because of our main podcast art, are the same colors of the Suicide Awareness ribbon. We still aren’t sure if that’s kinda cool or kinda creepy. Maybe you can tell us.
Meanwhile, does anyone need a set of coasters?
The Suicide Awareness Ribbon
The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline says that the purple and teal Suicide Prevention ribbon symbolizes suicide awareness and prevention and serves as a reminder that suicide is an issue we need to talk about.
The purple and teal also combines the two awareness colors for domestic violence (purple) with sexual assault violence (teal) to show support for both related causes.
If you or anyone you know are struggling with suicidal ideation or self-harm, always, always reach out. There will always be someone there to listen to you.
Here's some additional resources:
The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline has a number you can call, day or night, round the clock 24/7. I've called before, and they really made a difference. That number is:
National call number: 1-800-273-8255
I'd you'd rather not speak on the phone, at the Crisis Text Line you can text or chat online with them round the clock, 24/7. That number is:
National Text number: text HELLO to 741741
Remember, yoSentence Yet.u aren't alone in this.