SO?

I am getting so tired of hearing "so" used so many ways that I am so tempted to do something so unlike me that you will know that I am so out of it that you should be concerned about me. I have mentioned this to a certain teenager so many times but I always get the same response. So? It bothers me so much that so many people can't even be bothered to put the what on the end of it. They mean "so what." But they just say, "So."

So often when I am talking to a group of good friends I am so happy to be with them that I forget about worrying about little things. So I don't even think about the word. That is I don't until someone responds to a statement of another person with that one little word.

Sometimes it can be a positive statement that yes, things are as you said.

One person explains a situation clearly. Another understands it, maybe for the first time. Often the response will be "So." It's as if the "so" says, "now I see." "Yes that makes sense." Other times the word can be a direction. Such as "Put your pillow on the bed, so." Showing how the proper bed should look.

Other times someone is questioning the truthfulness of a statement. "Is that really so?" A rather old fashioned way of using the word states that something is in a certain condition. "It has long been so."

When another little two-letter word can be used some people use "so" instead of "as." "She was not so cold as he was." One of the uses makes my head hurt so. That is when they really mean "so much."

And of course, I get upset about things like this so I write about them, and so do some other friends of mine who like to write.

When I do get so tired I might even ask some of my friends to go away so I can rest. Probably if I rest an hour or so I will feel better.

So far I have tried to stay away from the meanings that are so bothersome to me. The tone of voice can make the two little letters have dozens of different meanings because it is so adaptable to so many situations.

Writers try so hard to avoid repeating the same words so often. But when a word has so many different uses and so many different meanings then it is so hard to come up with another word.

So many times I have searched for another word. I try to use "very" so much that it gets just as monotonous as "so" does. So I try to rationalize the fact that it is used so much that probably not many people noticed that I have used it so much myself.

So often, so much of the time, we just rattle on so much that we don't realize what we are saying. So I try to be extra careful when I write because it is so easy to go back and change things that are so awkward. But so what if I write like so many of us talk? It isn't as if I am trying to be so perfect that no one could so much as find an error.

What do you think? Am I overusing the word a bit? Or has my writing continued to be just so-so?