Sign Of The Times

How do you sign your name?

My full name is "Stephen D. Guschov." I almost never write every single letter of my name when I am signing something. More often than not, my signature consists of a cursive "S", then a cursive "G", and then a long slash or line.

Last week, I prepared a check to reimburse one of our FRC-Lima leaders for expenses related to our Extreme Week for kids that we have every year at a large, two-story Kentucky Fried Chicken here in Lima. When the leader went to the bank to try to cash the check, the bank teller told her that the bank would not cash the check for her, because I hadn't written out every single letter of my name in my signature!

The bank teller was saying, in effect, that even though my signature was authentic, a cursive "S", a cursive "G", and then a long slash was not good enough for them to cash the check. So I had to write a new check. And, very slowly and deliberately, I signed my name "Stephen D. Guschov." Every single letter was very neat and very legible. My kindergarten teacher would've been very proud of me.

I felt bad in this case, most of all, for our leader, as she was delayed for a few days from receiving her money, due to the fact that the bank would not accept an authentically-signed check. Peru is beset by falsification problems these days, but it seems as though the focus is on the wrong area when it comes to trying to solve this problem. You could say it's a "sign" of the times!