This should have been me.

Literally, this should have been me.

Yes, I graduated from college, and no doubt Aardvark Studios (yes, that was the vendor my college hired to take these grip and grins) snapped a photo of me as I shook hands with the dean.

My mom sent them $12 and the completed form asking for a rough description of me (light brown, shoulder length hair, medium height) in the hopes she'd get a nice portrait she could surprise me with. 

Instead, she got a photo of the dean with Some Other Woman. Judging from the thumbnail proof I found, the Other Woman was blonde. Refer to the description above. Clearly not me.

Slightly annoyed but undaunted, Mom sent the photo back with a note explaining that the photo was not of me, and could they please fix the error. 

Aardvark Studios sent a nice note back in return. With a portrait. Of this woman, whom I'd never once seen in my four years at college. I found it, along with the carbon of the FYI letter my mom sent to the dean and the very polite "WTF" missive she sent to Aardvark. Apparently they returned her $12 without asking her to send the photo back, too. 

If memory serves, Mom got a nice note back from the dean's representative, stating that we were among several families whose orders got mixed up. One would wonder whether Aardvark went back to something they were better at doing, like eating ants.

Still, I wonder who this girl is. I'll have to pull out the yearbook and see if I find a match. Who knows? She may have my photo.