call me alex

When I was little. Well, young. Younger. Okay, when I was in high school. I wasn't a senior or anything, that'd just be embarrassing. I was a Junior. I decided I was bored of the name Glenna. Yeah, I wanted to try something different. I guess living with your Aunt and Uncle in a new state (across the country) isn't different enough. And what's more different than a different name!

I actually thought really long and hard about what my new name (but I would explain to people it was a nickname given to me as a young child by all my many many friends back home) should be. I wanted something cool and edgy. Something that set me apart. Because, ya know, Glenna is a way common name and all. Biggest eye roll of my life. You guys, I was weird in high school. Who am I kidding, I'm still a weirdo. But onto my embarrassing story.

Glenna is a pretty tricky name to get a nickname from. There was always Lenna (which some of friends from home actually did call me) but it wasn't different enough. Then there was the obvious, Glenn, which happens to be a mans name. And although I wanted to recreate myself....I wanted to go in a less transexual direction. So thinking of a nickname from my first name was out of the question.

Then there was my middle name. May. I actually love my middle name but I wasn't edgy enough to get away with being called May. It's kinda weird. So...I went to my last name. My maiden name is Allen, again not much to work with. But finally I came up with the name Alex.

Alex. Yes. That would be my new name.

I was seriously nervous for the first day of school. I'm not sure why. Maybe because I thought I had a big sign on my forehead that said, "My name is Glenna." in big red letters.
Then when I tried to be all calm and casual and say, "Hi, I'm Alex."
They'd be like, "Say whaaaa?! You're not an Alex! You look like a Glenna to me."
And then I would cry because I'd have to explain why I lied about my name being Alex.

So first block came and I nervously waited for the teacher to call my "old name" so I could correct him and tell him "I actually go by a different name..." As if being called by Glenna was so absurd and ridiculous that he should already know I go by Alex. Duh.

And guess what? It totally went smoothly. And he totally believed that my name was Alex. And all my classmates called me Alex. And I smirked and smiled inside and patted myself on the back because my mad acting skills obviously deserved an award of some kind.

But then something happened. When people called me Alex I would forget they were talking to me. And I sat there like a big oaf who didn't know her own name and when I finally realized was like, "Huh? What? OH! Me...." And I'm pretty sure they thought I was a little bit retarded.

It was exciting to be Alex but way too much pressure and stress. So it only lasted a semester and then slowly I started telling people to call me Glenna. And I didn't feel retarded anymore. And life was normal again.

The end

                                   

"Alex"

Good ol' Glenna