Another Battle with the Printer...or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Scholarship

A few mornings ago I found out I was eligible for a scholarship from the university. I received an e-mail that said something about a financial aid update. I clicked the link and under the scholarship/grant section it said I was awarded a $500 scholarship. Why? Who knows? I never applied for anything, but I'm not going to let that stop me from taking it. This is my last semester, there is probably some system they have set up for graduating students that meet certain requirements. Or it is a big mistake. I'm not concerned either way. There was an "accept offer" link next to the award statement. As if there is any question about whether or not I will accept their $500 of free money. It wasn't as easy as just clicking the link though; the link brought me to instructions about writing a letter of thanks. This instruction list gives about a dozen points of instruction on writing a letter of thanks. Several lines of what to include, and a few more of what not to include. A small manual of how to write the letter of thanks, but nothing specific about the second part of the process, which was to include a picture of myself. I typed the letter and printed that in a few minutes. I supposed the letter and picture would be sent to an elderly couple in the community who donate to whatever fund this scholarship was coming from. Even though I'm making light of this situation, I really do appreciate those who are contributing to efforts such as these to take some of the financial sting away from the students. It is a very nice thing they are doing. That being said, I needed a photo to include with the letter. I didn't want to just give them a photo of me wearing a tie and standing against a blank wall with a half-smile. Half-smiles are all I ever give anyone, but that's not the point, nor is it the truth. Forget about it.
On with the story. I don't have any pictures of myself. I live in the digital world. I do have a photo printer though, so I guess it's all the same. Having a photo printer today is like my parents having photographs when they were kids, just as they had a huge cathode-ray tube television and I have a cell phone that can stream video. Its all the same. I went to my "photo album" (facebook) to select a good picture of myself, something with a little more personality than what I expect they always get. Remember, there weren't any photo instructions on the web page, so I'm left to my own devices. I searched the pictures: me with a rifle? no. me playing guitar on stage? no. me with green hair? nah. I'm proud to say that I don't have any pictures of me making a kissy face in the mirror while taking the picture myself. I might be the only person on facebook under the age of 30 who doesn't have such a photo. I settled on a picture of me with a pumpkin I carved a few years ago. I did that partial carving trick where you don't cut all the way through, you know what I'm saying? I carved out some leaves. I thought it was pretty stellar.
So I put the photo paper in the printer and press print. Of course it doesn't work. If you know me and have seen my story on facebook about a previous experience with my printer and printing photos, you'll know this means something. One of these days I'll have to format that group of pictures into a slide show and post it on here. For now you will have to take my word that my printer doesn't always work when I want it to and it frustrates me more than is decent. The photo paper jammed on the first attempt, at least that's what the computer told me. The paper didn't even move in the tray. After "clearing" the jam, the printer was unresponsive. I pushed a bunch of buttons and resent the print job and finally had to unplug the printer and let it reset itself. I will admit, at some point in this process I thought "this isn't worth the $500." I almost believed it, but after thinking that, everything fell into perspective. Happily, after unplugging the printer it was able to complete the job and I had my picture of me with the pumpkin.
The letter and picture were to be dropped off at the financial aid office, so I planned to do that before class. I ran into Ben and we talked for too long and I had to wait until after class. I went after class and decided to ask about the photo before I busted that out. In my mind it was a good idea to give them a non-traditional photo, or what I thought would fall under that classification. I pictured the moment when I hand over the letter and a picture of me with a pumpkin and the receptionist just looking at me like I was that melting Gestapo guy in Raiders of the Lost Ark. It probably wouldn't have been that bad, but it would have seemed that way to me. When I handed over the letter I asked if there were any specifications on the photo, and mentioned that the website hadn't offered any. She said "yes, there are, I'll just take a picture of you." This was after I introduced myself and said that I had an e-mail telling me about a scholarship I was eligible for, but that I never requested. I asked if it was "legit" and she said "yeah." I was directed to a blank portion of the wall and instructed to stand there. She took the picture of me while I half-smiled with my silver tie.