the first time someone wrote a letter and wanted the recipient to be sure of who it came from. And since notaries are still in common use today, it seems like they’re working.

Not to mention that for a lot of people, having paper documents seems more secure, or at least more reassuring. There are thousands of bike messengers still employed in big cities to ferry paperwork back and forth, no matter how easy it might be to send those documents by email. Tangibility equals safety and security.

Why notarizing in particular – well. With the sheer amount of advertising that we absorb by proximity every day, experts have hypothesized that soon enough, word-of-mouth recommendations may be the only things people trust. Which is often the same principal notarization operates on – if people know someone who’s a notary, they’ll go to them for help, to have someone at least aware they exist vouch that yes, this is a real person, and to prove so I will stake my good name on it.

Perhaps it’s a little bit silly to look at something as common and everyday as paperwork as a representative for how human society and business as a whole works, but I’m young and innocent and haven’t quite been worn down by the drudgery yet. Give me time to look forward to being 18 for a whole slew of reasons that largely boil down to “being taken seriously.”

Which in itself is another whole kettle of issues, but that can wait for another time.

— Nina Collay is a junior at Thornton Academy who can frequently be found listening to music, reading, or wrestling with a heavy cello case.