Exclamation Marks

Yesterday was the first day of my James Joyce's Ulysses course. We all had to do a self-introduction on the discussion board. Everyone else was older, semi-retired, from Greece, Austrailia, England and the US. I added my little intro, trying to make myself sound at least semi-smart. I read it aloud to Carolyn and Kathy to make sure it wasn't dumb. Then I posted it. Afterwards, I wondered aloud "I wonder if there were too many exclamation points?" Carolyn looked skeptical, "You mean you put exclamation points in that?!" Kathy said that it made it obvious I was trying to hard. I couldn't change it, so I'll just have to be that young girl in Taipei who is too excited. Reminds me of what Dr. Doughty used to say in Creative Writing, that each person should be allowed one exclamation point for their life. I'm over my limit.