Throughout the week, I’ve been receiving cards from friends and relatives for my birthday. It’s great to have so many thoughtful people in my life.

While I really do appreciate the cards, this got me thinking…

Since I was in middle school (probably before, but who can remember), I’ve been opening the occasional envelope with “Marissa” on the front. Not Marissa, but “Marissa”. With the quotation marks. As if it’s not really my name. Or like it’s some secret code. Operation: “Marissa”.

This has been happening to me for a really long time. I thought it was just certain relatives who weren’t certain what to call me, but, as I’ve gotten older, I’ve seen it more and more. Perhaps I’m becoming more forgettable with time. But kudos to these relatives, because year after year, they’re still guessing correctly. (There is an occasional “Melissa” thrown in to keep me on my toes.)

Always excited for the contents of the envelope and not really caring about the label, I’ve been able to move on with my life, not truly questioning my identity.

However, I’ve started to see “these” everywhere. The curiosity was overwhelming.

Enter Google.

In my quest to search for some meaning behind the haphazard quotation marks that have been thrown around all my life, I stumbled upon unnecessaryquotes.com, which prides itself on being “The ‘Blog’ of 'Unnecessary’ Quotation Marks”.

Readers submit photos of any ridiculously placed quotation marks, and they post them with a quippy caption. It’s fabulous.

Here are some of my favorites from the site:

The best one I found:

The submitter acknowledges that these are probably rays of light, but they sure look like quotation marks. Like it’s not actually a church. It’s a cover.

It’s a pretty sweet idea. I’m impressed.

Also, I still have no idea why no one knows my name.