in this ever changing world in which we're signing

When is it too late to be working on your signature, your autograph, your mark?

I only ask because I had a free period today and was planning on using it to sign off my year twelves’ coursework. Over the course of an hour my signature changed dramatically - not just the style; even the content changed. I went from Sam, to Samuel, to S, to SJ. I settled on SJ; it has gravitas.

I’m in my thirties. Should I still be developing my signature at this late stage in my life? By now my abiding identity should be firmly ensconced in my psyche. It actually worries me that I am still experimenting with this. Will my bank recognise my new identity? Will programmes from shows I’ve performed become less valuable due to my autograph being outdated?

Of course it’s not the first time it’s changed. I would be surprised if any of you had the same signature you had as a teenager. As I look through these coursework cover sheets I’m hoping most of my year twelves will have a revisal before they reach adulthood – some of their’s are shocking; like a parrot with a drink problem wrote them in a bit of a rush.

Personally I’m hoping this latest incarnation will be my last (for a while.) I have quite a lot of signing to do in the next few months – in work and beyond the school gates. Hopefully I can keep the same design until that’s all done. My credit cards are coming near replacement dates – so it would be nice to have a fairly common theme for each of them. I have sold a photograph of some trees and the buyer wants me to sign it. It would be terrible if I can’t decide how it should look for that. I can’t afford to make twenty copies of the print to experiment on.

It’s not just me who will be affected. One of my pupils is on report for bad behaviour. This means he carries round a piece of paper and receives a comment on his behaviour and work in every lesson. I commented and signed his page this morning – and then I had him again in the afternoon. He noticed the variation in my signing but said nothing – just left looking confused. That’s ok then – that makes two of us.