Fine Print

On every contract and official document there is fine print. Those little details that lawyers put in to make sure every possibility is covered. When we rent a car or get a loan for a house or order online there is fine print. We skip past it and sign our name or give out our financial information without a second thought.

But what about that fine print on your birth certificate. No it is not the stuff on the front. That just lists your name, your mother and father, the date and location of your birth. You never turned it over and saw all that fine print?

Each one is different so you have to read it all closely. Some are short because there is a death certificate attached. Some are long with multiple paragraphs describing what this life is to hold. If it was only that simple, but I is not?

The fine print would tell you about becoming overweight. It was tell you about acne, early baldness, and being short. Read closely about getting the measles, first day of school jitters and being bullied. Not being chosen for the prom queen or star quarterback and buying your first car and having it wrecked by your sister is all in the fine print.

Your first kiss is in the fine print. Often followed up by your first broken heart. The fine print also covers failing a class and being grounded. It also states how you cheated on your finals but never got caught. In that small type is your police record and the many times of coming home inebriated.

The fine type will state the happiness of another smile and the despair of a death in the family. It will tell you why you named your first-born and why you looked the other way. Not getting the raise you had hoped for in a job that became a career you were not educated for, or even wanted, will be described in the fine print. Hobbies, accidents, vacations, moving and removing, and paying taxes are all in find print.

If we only took the time to read it, we would have been prepared for what is to come. Or maybe that is the adventure of life.