After screwing around in college for almost twenty years, next week I will complete my final quarter and earn my Bachelor of Science in Mathematics.
A few weeks ago I ordered my graduation announcements. I got them designed the way I wanted, then came to the part where you can insert a quote. They had a bunch of stock quotes to choose from, but I thought “screw that - I want something different, something funny.”
My first choice would have been:
But, there are too many people on my list who wouldn’t get it. So, I thought about it, started looking around the 'net, deciding I wanted something that has to do with math, but that one wouldn’t need to be a mathematician to understand the humor.
I finally settled on:
Keep in mind, this is a done deal. I have the announcements, there’s no changing them. I’ll be sending them out tomorrow. But I’m kind of thinking I should have gone with something a little more standard… there are a lot of cousins and such on my list, people I don’t really know, haven’t seen in ten years, or whatever.
Let me put it this way: say, out of the blue, you got a graduation announcement in the mail from some distant family member you don’t really know, and it has the above quote. Would you think “That’s really cute,” or would you think “this guy’s a freakin’ loon”?
I guess I’m just looking for people to make me feel better about this…
I think the odds that I would look closely enough to see your irreverant quote are not good.
Sending people with whom you are not in regular contact graduation announcements may or may not be a good idea, but I’m not seeing much harm in the quote itself.
Calvin & Hobbes is not some weird obscure thing. Haven’t you seen all those Calvin peeing stickers? Lots of people will know where it came from and I doubt anyone will think it’s strange.
I should clarify: when I said I don’t really know my cousins, I didn’t mean it like I’d never met them. When we were all kids we were closer, we’d see each other a few to several times a year, on vacations, at family events, and so forth. Now I only see them once every few years, at weddings or funerals. We’ll hang out and talk as if we’d just seen each other yesterday, but we don’t generally keep in touch in between these events.
Yeah, I’m thinking I should print up stickers with the Ghostbusters quote and put them on the back of select envelopes.
Who do you hang out with? Nuns? The secret service? I can’t imagine anyone being so uptight that they’d give even a moment of thought to either one of these quotes. I mean, your cousins do know you have some kind of individual personality, don’t they? Anyway, don’t sweat it. This isn’t a funeral or anything. In the end I don’t think anyone is going to pay much attention to them.
That said, I think graduation announcements for college seems a little tacky.
