Name Change

The name I was given at birth was Mary. Middle name Olivia. Ever since I can remember I haven't liked my name. Not necessarily the name itself, but the name for me. Does that make sense? Likeknow other people named Mary and I like it for them, but I never liked it on me. 

Anyway. I just silently hated it forever without actually doing anything about it. I lived in a small town and it didn't seem like it would work if I just asked everyone to call me something different. The logical thing to do would be to change it the first year I moved 7 hours away to go to college in London. I can't remember why I didn't just do it then. Maybe it still seemed like too big a task. 

I went to college for Photography, where everyone called me Mary, but ended up not liking it and switching to Business. This meant a new class so I finally decided to start going by my middle name. It only took me 20 years... It was pretty easy. I was meeting new people so I could just introduce myself as Olivia and nobody would know any differently. The school wouldn't let me change my "preferred name" so on the attendance I was still Mary. The first day of classes I would tell everyone I went by Olivia, so the class knew my real name but everyone called my Olivia.

Everyone in London, with the exception of my grandparents who lived there, knew me as Olivia. Back home everyone still knew me as Mary and that's what they called me. Which I was fine with. I can't imagine calling someone something other than what I always called them. The only time it was weird is when there were London people and hometown people together. 

It probably would have been enough to spend the rest of my life going by my middle name but that wasn't enough for me. I wanted it to be legally changed. When I graduated college the gift my parents got me was paying for my name to be changed. My mom knew a layer who signed off on the form, and this past summer I got a new birth certificate in the mail.

I ended up just switching my first and middle names, so it went from Mary Olivia Irwin to Olivia Mary Irwin. My parents chose Mary and out of respect for them I wanted to keep it. I still have yet to change my ID's or bank cards but that's the next step. Am I happy with my seemingly pointless decision that cost me some dollas? Yes, I would do it all over again.

Life is short and happiness is the main goal here. If you don't like something, change it.