In the beginning, I didn’t know which characters would stick. In this first appearance of Susan, I wrote her as a bit of a simpleton. But I think it was her good natured earnestness which led me to have her stick around. She came to be one of my favorite characters.
And just so you know, I actually did drop out of UMass after two years. For better or for worse.
I think this background was actually  referenced from the admission offices of UMass, and that heart card was because this strip appeared shortly before Valentines day.
i dropped out of college are 4 of 5 years degree because my auto accident and then another major accident (i got married) left me too broke to finish. got into property management and found out my degree would have been worthless anyhow. colleges graduate more students than there are jobs for many degrees.