What's in a Name?

I do not like the man who squanders life for fame; give me the man who
living makes a name.
Emily Dickinson

Emily Dickinson. One of my favorites. Up until about an hour ago, when I decided that I was going to look up famous quotes about names, I had no idea she had ever said this. But I loved it on sight. So I decided to use it.

A name is like the only pair of pants that will fit us our entire life. Come on people, how many of you have found the perfect fitting jeans in your lifetime? Our name defines us, it shapes us: Marilyn Monroe, a glamorous name. George Washington, a bold name. Ringo Starr, an original name. Even when we detest the names our parents give us, it can still be hard to imagine another name for ourselves.

Or maybe it's not hard. Meryl Streep, Vivian Vance, Sigourney Weaver. Maybe they thought their new names fit them better than their original names.

For some time I've hated my name. I have even discussed this with my mother and father, "I hate it, it's too childish, it's too this, it's not cool-" blah blah blah. So, being the intelligent parents, they would always reply, "Fine, you can change it."

That's when I realize, I don't want to change it. I like it. And, even though I don't admit it to them, I think, wow, my parents are geniuses. So I haven't changed my name yet, even though there are days when I want to.

One of my favorite pieces of literature regarding names is Juliet's in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet:

What’s in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other word would smell as sweet.
So Romeo would, were he not Romeo called,
Retain that dear perfection which he owes
Without that title.

Translated to modern-day English: Juliet is saying that a rose, would still smell as sweet as if it were called by another name, as would her beloved Romeo. A rose could be christened a dandelion, but it still smells like a rose.

But, what she failed to realize, was that if we called the rose by another name, and it still smelled just as sweet, we would still recognize it as a rose that changed its name. If I changed my name, my parents would still call me by the name they gave me at birth. Our names are our identities. They define us. Look at Romeo and Juliet. Montague and Capulet. They both died because their name defined them.

But the world isn't Montague and Capulet. We make our names. Romeo and Juliet aren't Capulet and Montague because they made their own names as the play went on. We know them as Romeo and Juliet. Just like we know Abraham Lincoln, Benjamin Franklin, Winston Churchill, and so on. We make the names that define us.

Too bad we don't make the jeans that fit us.

Everybody Loves Being Recognized

Don't worry when you are not recognized, but strive to be worthy of
recognition.

-Abraham Lincoln

As a writer, I find it hard to sit in front of a computer and type what comes into my head, because half the time most of my pages end up in the virtual recycling bin (which I recently had to clear out because it had filled to capacity). I used to think it was because I wasn't inspired. Then I thought that it was because I wasn't a good writer. Then it recently came to me that it was because no one was reading it.

Well, to solve that problem, I went and started a blog. But my recognition by others remains a problem.

The animated show Family Guy, as crude as it can be, once featured a short clip that parodied the many writers who sit with their laptops at Starbucks to write. The pun was pretty short, but entertaining all the same:

First Writer: Writing has no point unless other people are watching me.

Second Writer: You should totally write that down!

First Writer: Okay! Will you watch me?

I personally called it a "story of my life" moment, mostly because I'm not a very modest person. I like my hard work to be recognized by other people, and I can get slightly envious when others are recognized ahead of me. It is very frustrating in life when another person is noticed and we are not. Maybe your mother-in-law prefers the other daughter-in-law over you, even though you're the one who is constantly putting up with the mother in law's (excuse me) crap. Maybe your boss frequently recognizes or favors another employee who, you know, spends most of their time twiddling their thumbs and going on facebook while you sit in your cubicle working with your nose pressed up against the papers all day. Maybe you didn't get to be the employee of the month when you know for sure that you worked 200% harder than that other guy.

Well, for aspiring writers, we can have a hard time getting recognition. It used to make my blood boil when another student was dubbed "the best writer in our English class" as I sat in the back digging my pencil into my desk with fury. We're writers. We write. We don't get on a screen and entertain people usually. We're not in the spotlight. So it's hard to even be recognized, and it's hard when you want to be recognized but know that the slacker next to you is probably more likely to be than you. It's frustrating sitting in your room, knowing how capable you are of writing the next big thing, when Stephenie Meyer of the Twilight series is making money and getting book interviews.

Or maybe it's not frustrating. It depends on what kind of person you are.

I'm the kind of person who observes a lot of unfairness in recognition. We recognize the student with the highest grades, but what about the student with the most contribution to the class? the strongest desire to learn? We recognize the most efficient employee of the month, but what about the worker who truly and deeply enjoy what they're doing, day in and day out? who takes agonizing time on each customer or patient just to satisfy everything they need?

Well, that's life. My mother tells me all the time: "You can be mad or jealous at anyone in the world, and if you are, they don't know. And if they know, they don't care." I keep telling myself that she's right. Recognition is never fair, and the wrong person is almost always recognized by everyone else. But getting angry at them only makes you the bad guy. What if that disgruntled, hardworking employee walked into the manager's office and went berserk about the unfairness he believed he witness? What kind of consequences would there be?

We can look at President Lincoln. In his time, he wasn't considered one of our greatest presidents yet. He wasn't exactly recognized. But he did fullfill his own words, striving to become worthy enough of recognition.

Well, I think he's a pretty recognized figure now.

Why is there so much "unfinished writing" in the world?

Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing

Benjamin Franklin

I think all aspiring writers can agree that they all have a notebook filled with possible story ideas, suggestions, notes, newspaper clippings, song lyrics, poem stanzas, sketches, and anything else we can possibly fit into a single notebook. If you look in mine, you won't find a lot of writing, but you will find a lot of random, unnecessary writing snippets that are probably the reason my writing takes forever. But don't judge! I'm sure a lot of you do too.

For example, last summer I had a sudden inspiration to write a story about a school student. So, I had one paragraph in my notebook, and about four versions of a school acceptance letter, a mile long list of character names, colorful sketches of school uniforms, and twenty five redone copies of school schedules for each character.

Why did I do this? Well I don't really know why, but I think it was a sign that maybe I wasn't really ready to actually write the story. I loved taking notes, making sketches. But when I sat down to right, I just really hated the words that ended up on the page.

I don't have anything against notes. After all, the famous rags-to-riches J.K Rowling spent her time taking notes on napkins at a cafe that later turned into the lengthy Harry Potter novel series. But I think there are times when the notes are more fun than the writing. When the idea of drawing medieval peasant skirts or making maps of hidden islands in the pacific ocean seems more appealing than writing two pages a day.

So, to all those aspiring writers out there, who probably have bubble-gum wrappers and masquerade outfits between the lines of their writing notebooks, keep the story on your mind. After all, our sketches are meaningless without the first draft.

Of course, this doesn't apply to writers who have better concentrations than I. That's admirable.