For our first of 25 carols, I am choosing It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas. I picked this mostly as it is true: Christmas decorations, wrapping, presents, trees; everything can be seen everywhere!
This song was written in 1951 by Meredith Wilson and has been covered numerous times, my choice being the fantastic Bing Crosby.
Have you ever bought a sweater or jacket, and thought this is just so me. It looks perfect.
And then you see someone wearing the same thing and am like:
Eve though we know these are mass produced and sold, everywhere: we still expect it to be something that just represents us and shows our uniqueness.
(This is one of the reasons why I only do thrift store shopping. Except pants, the right ones are just so hard to find.)
Well, I feel the same way about my name.
It’s true. We delve so much from our name. It’s one of the first things people ask, and something that becomes such a big part of our personality, whether we hate or love it.
I’ve personally have a love/hate relationship with my name. There are things I like about it, but also things I hate. Do you remember that time when everyone was looking up their names and finding out it meant “warrior” or “steady” or “brave”? Well my meaning was dumb and everyone teased me for weeks.
Now I don’t know about you all, but even though it’s not perfect, I HATE it when others share my name.
My name is an extremely popular one, I was always in a class with at least three others that shared my name (or a variation). And nothing sucks more than when someone says your name, you come over, and it’s all “no, not you. The other one.”
You made me walk all the way over here for nothing?!
And even though through my life I have probably encountered at least 40 people (from 1st to 12th grade) who shared the same name as me, I have never, ever, once been able to find any souvenir or keychain or bumper sticker, ever.
And my name is pretty popular in TV, books, and films. I just don’t get it. It’s so frustrating!
Now why I don’t like sharing my name with others, I don’t mind fictional characters. I don’t know about you, but it seems like you search for these, hoping to find someone really cool who shares the name, with traits you can emulate.
I’d tell you mine, but I don’t want to reveal my name. I like keeping the few shreds of anonymity I have. After all if someone I know reads this and tries to connect it with me, I’ll be like:
janeaustenrunsmylife 