What’s in a name?

If you would have asked me six months ago what my plans were especially following divorce, I’d tell you I wasn’t making any plans.

After surviving such a destabilizing series of events that required me to evolve everything from grocery shopping habits to my living and work spaces while becoming the custodial parent, I’d tell you my focus was simply to remain grounded. I had worked hard to achieve a level of consistency for our child during such a season of unexpected transition. Now I was ready for something new.

At some point my survival needs softened and so did I. Making new friends and spending greater time with mentors, through conversations and supportive processing, I discovered I had strong feelings about the value of building a legacy and the importance of names.

I learned from my mentors, how our names are a constant, living embodiment of our legacies and it got me thinking. Read more from the National Library of Medicine on Commemorative Naming. What kind of future can I even build if I hold on to names from people who’ve hurt me?

I knew I was long overdue for something fresh and fun. It got me thinking, how good could life really get? And what do I even want to create now, when I’ve had to burn everything down?

How do you start over from ashes?

Now this I question I knew, intimately and the answer appeared like a poof of smoke. Talking with one of my friends who is a mom and another who's transgender, both ignited new ideas. Could I really change my name? Now?!

I hadn’t even considered it yet. I had built an entire career with my old names. 

Some of the most important work I’ve been part of so far were under these names. Did I want to have a different last name than our daughter? My dog? What would this new name even be? 

I decided at that moment if I was going to go through the work of changing my name (again), it would have to be something I absolutely loved and moved me up in the alphabet (duh!)

Want to find out more? Check out Linsey’s blog to enjoy learning what’s next.