My Name in Concrete

On the campus where I work, there is a bunch of writing in the concrete outside of the dining hall. People seem to love writing their names in wet cement. I don't blame them, I'd do it too, if I ever came across wet cement. Or well, I'd want to, but I probably wouldn't, because I wouldn't want to ruin someone's hard work. I'm too nice for my own good, sometimes.

Anyway, if you didn't know any better, you'd think I did write my name in the cement here. Take a look.

Can you see it? It's kind of faint and hard to see, but there in the corner of that cement square, it says "Dede," which is my nickname.

Still can't see it? Okay, I'll point it out for you.

There. Now you can see it, right? The first e is almost too faint to see, but the D and the de are pretty clear.

Now, I realize that I'm not the only person in the world with this nickname. But most people spell it differently - "Deedee" being the most common, I would guess. And I wasn't on campus - as a student or employee - when this cement was poured. So I'm sure this is some other Dede altogether. Maybe she was a hip girl from New York City, or maybe she was a horse loving girl who was here for the equine program. I like that latter version better, because I would have loved to be a horsey girl. I love horses, I just never got to be around them.

Anyway, I have no idea who this other Dede was, but I kind of love that she wrote our nickname in the cement.

Ooh, or maybe she didn't write it at all. Maybe some guy (or gal) who had a crush on her wrote it! Aww. I like that. It's sweet.

Every time I walk by this area of cement, I look for my name. And now I'll have to think about that other Dede. And wonder if she wrote the name herself, or if that mystery crush wrote it.

I'm secretly hoping it was the crush. And I hope Dede thought it was very romantic, to see her name in cement, and I hope she and the crush got together and had a long, happy life, with a house and jobs and babies - all of that good stuff. We girls named Dede deserve all the good stuff, I think.