LOL

LOL

At 45 years old, and like many people my age, which is still young in my eyes, we are faced with an ever changing language. They call it initialism, words compounded with abbreviated letters. To be very honest, I am not very good at it and would rather spell out the words instead of giving the first letter of each word, g2g, ttyl, omg…..and of course lol.

I often have to ask my daughters what some of these abbreviations mean. An example of my misunderstanding is the most often abbreviation “lol”. I used to believe it stood for lots of love, instead of laugh out loud. But I am not alone in my misunderstanding.

A customer of mine, who often frequents my shop, also thought it stood for something else. When Annie’s cousin had the misfortune of losing her mother,

Annie’s aunt, the family was in mourning. Not being able to be there for the family, in the mid-west, she wanted to keep in contact and express her comfort and love. Along with phone calls, Annie also used texting to keep in contact with her family.

Annie wrote, “So sorry to hear about your mom. She was a great woman and will surely be missed. LOL!” Annie couldn’t understand why, after a warm and loving text, her cousin was offended and found nothing “funny” about it. It wasn’t until later that Annie found out when she was expressing LOL, “ lots of love”, she sent out “laugh out loud”. I think I will start writing out the full words more often!