I maybe understand a little what you're going through - the local paper has run two stories on me, one about the "thirteen year old going to college" and the other about the "seventeen year old graduating from college," and it's been really annoying. My mother parades me around town saying, "this is *my* daughter, who had an article about her in the Daily Progress!" It's a bit different, since it is actually something that has to do with me, but I still try not to let it be widely known, because people tend to treat me really differently if the know before they know me well. That's why I transferred to Bryn Mawr, so nobody would know until they at least knew me a bit better. I didn't have a choice about whether the articles would appear; my parents just said, "we've talked to this lady at the Daily Progress, she'll be calling to interview you about an article." The first one bothered me, since I was still in school here, and I got teased a lot for the rest of the year. But, the one at graduation didn't matter so much, since I won't be living here anymore, so it's only a problem when I'm at home. I can't really offer any suggestions - I would rather have not done it, if it had been my choice, but then again it did make my parents really happy, and I don't have to deal with it much, since I can't visit home often from California anyway. It probably just depends how often you'll be around people who wouldn't otherwise know. I just try to think about it as something for my parents, which I just have to endure. Good luck in deciding!

-Phoenix