Sunday, July 19, 2009

Names... According to Maz

"What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet." 
I love this quote! And it's prolly the only one that I even remember from R & J, thanks to the great literature education I received at Safford HS. (no, i'm not being serious. i learned almost nothing about good literature in high school, the school spent too much time just trying to teach people to read. but I read enough on my own to make up for it.) I've started to realize that I might be obsessed with the names of things. Or at least the different sounds that different words make. And the different meanings that are associated with different words and different sounds. And that could take me to many many different places so, I'm just going to focus on people's names (thanks amber for helping me with that).
Isn't it funny that people fit the names that they have? I mean, think about it. People do! For the most part. I can think of a couple exceptions, but for the most part its true. Why is that? Do we just grow into them? Do we become more like our name because people associate our names with certain things? Here's a perfect example: my real name is Miranda and so whenever I go anyplace where I have to wear a name tag it usually says that on it because they take it off my file or whatever. But for the most part, I'm called Mandy. My parents have called me Mandy since I was a little girl and I have gone with that for pretty much my entire life. And I truthfully think that name fits me. Miranda, to me, sounds more girly, grown up, frilly. And Mandy is more free, more fun. I think so anyway... So, while I was at this camp (girls state), one of the girls there (sara) asked me "Do you always go by Miranda? Cuz that really doesnt fit you." I was blown away, because this girl I had known for a whole three days, not even because we had only really talked at lunch for like an hour, had figured me out. She didn't think I acted like a "Miranda". It's like my name was a costume but she knew that I really didn't believe I was what I was dressed up as. And it's not like I'm trying to hide behind my name, or that I don't like it. It was just way easier at camp to let people call me Miranda. But this girl that I hardly knew could tell that that wasn't what I was usually called. So, that makes me wonder, do we adapt to our names? Yes, my real name is Miranda, but I don't think I look like or act like a Miranda. I think I act like a Mandy. So, if I changed my mind and had people call me Miranda, would I start acting like a Miranda?? Would my change in name cause me to change who I am? Thoughts anyone? Stories?
And as I'm on the topic of names, I thought I might as well explain about my name Maz. If you haven't played sports or gone to school with me, you prolly wouldn't understand it. So I will explain. My freshman year, I was playing JV volleyball (i later was moved up to varsity, just fyi =P but for this story i was on jv) and we had a new coach named Chaz (coach brockrick, whatever). Because she was new, she was giving us all nicknames to make it easier for her to remember our names. (also because at the time she was super lazy, but i can only say that cuz i know her and feel free to give her a hard time.) So, she was giving us all nicknames and because my last name is Mazanek, she took the first part and started calling me Maz. And it stuck. I have no idea why. Again, maybe because it fits me, or I fit it. Either way, I became Maz. And pretty much everyone at school called me that. The funny thing is that when my dad was in high school (he was a big jock too) that's what people called him!! It's a funny world. So Maz is originally my sports name but is now my even shorter nickname, Miranda is my real name (that only a select few people and my mother call me) and Mandy is my everday name. At the moment. Maybe college will change me even more and I'll come up with an even different name! Who knows!?

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