Careful What You Say

That's Amy, the one with the funny hat on.
What's with these hats, anyway? Why not a fedora?

The Internets have big ears.

But here we are. Almost a year ago, I offered advice and encouragement (in my own strange way) to the graduating PA class of 2012. The writing device I used was a very tongue-in-cheek method; it was on the assumption that I could or would be invited to speak at their graduation.

It pays to dream big, people.

OK. It's not exactly graduation. But I will be speaking to a couple hundred people on the eve of graduation. The PA school has its own curiously named "hooding ceremony" the night before general graduation. I have been asked to speak on behalf of spouses.

There was some initial joking about including all the derivations of the word "suck" in my message to the graduating class. TW pointed out that she would like a more uplifting message.

There was some thought given to presenting TW's description of PA school: "It's like PA school is a big stick and everybody tells you to beat your spouse with it. At the end of the day, your spouse will thank you and you will be better off for beating your spouse with a big stick. But it really sucks beating your spouse with a big stick."

TW pointed out that she'd prefer to not die of embarrassment at the hooding ceremony.

Duly noted. Uplifting and non-embarrassing. Got it. I can't promise not to embarrass TW, but I'll do my best.

Admittedly, I never expected to speak. And it's certainly not because I have such great advice for future PAs. Hell, I ripped off the theme of wearing sunscreen from a famous newspaper column that was turned into a famous music video. But here we are.

And so it was yesterday morning that Amy asked what it was that I wanted to do with life. I said the first thing that popped into my mind: "Go to NYU!"

Wait a minute. That's not such a bad idea. But for what? And could I actually get in? And ... oh my.

Be careful what you say.