Wind In My Head: Signing Off
Wind In My Head
Friday, July 22, 2005
Signing Off
I was faced with 2 sets of 20 results slips that I had to sign and distribute to the students. And I realised, I have lost all ability to sign my name. I have known for a while that my signature hasn't looked the same in a long while. My charge card slips are testament of the scrawl that has taken the place of the signature. But I always thought that was just me being lazy. Only once earlier this year, when I was in Canada was I asked to re sign the charge slip because my signature on the card bore little resemblance to the scrawl on the slip. And I thought they were just being picky. I mean, I am Asian and Asians are computer nerds and computer nerds know how to hack into systems and steal people's credit card information. As you can tell, I am once again reading too many sub standard essays for my own good.But apparently, it's not just about me being lazy. I had time just now and I really tried to get my full signature out, but it just wouldn't budge. The learned wrist action would stop short of the last syllable of my name and emit a long line instead of legible letters as it is supposed to. 40 signatures later, I admitted defeat. My signature has a life and will of its own.
I proceeded to do what I last did when I was 12, pull out a blank piece of paper and repeatedly practice the signature. On occasion, it neared its original form, but none as neat and clean. Perhaps it is a sign of growing up, that your signature becomes an illegible scrawl. I mean when have we been able to decipher what our parents pass off as their signatures at the bottom of our report books and excuse letters.
But I liked my signature. It was the one I invented at 12 and stayed with me throughout. It's the same one on our marriage certificate. And now it's different. Now it's gone! The semblance of it remains, possibly because the first letter of my name creates the shape of the signature. But everything else just doesn't look the same.
I don't like this new signature. I will once again pull out a piece of paper and go away and practice signing my name, the old way, the way I like it. I don't wanna grow up. I don't want my signature to change.
I will now live in fear that the cheques I send out every month will bounce because my signature is doing its own Darwinian thing.
Ondine tossed this thought in at 10:47
2 thoughts...
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At 9:50 pm
Tym said... I lost my signature soon after I became a teacher, though I don't blame it on signing report slips since I always use an abbreviated squiggle for that. No, no, for me the great fear is that one day my signature will not sufficiently resemble the one in my passport to satisfy a nitpicky customs officer, and then the game will be up.
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At 9:46 am
Threez said...
I am considering resorting to thumbprinting again because I lost my signature in 1991 when I started working and using the computer. Apple should come up with iThumb, for people with ailing signatures. Never mind the cheques, usually the bank is quite slack as long as your name appears on the bottom. It's those GIRO forms that'll getcha.