Say Her Name

Photo credit: Robsalot (that's me!)

“Julie Anne Martson” my name echoed down the hall toward my room.

Shit, my dad sounded pissed. Ugh, and what a fucking cliché, using my whole name in anger. As he flung my door open, I prepared for his wrath, but instead he burst into my room with a huge smile on his face.

“You’re home from college!” he exclaimed.

“Yeah… Hi Dad,” I said as I stood up from my childhood bed to give him a hug. As he held me in a tight embrace I couldn’t help but wonder if I was the only person in the world who hated my name? I mean I detested it so much I decided to change it when I went away to college. The day I moved into my dorm I told everyone to call me Jay (because the first letter of my name was a J, and I think I heard it in a movie once, and I thought it sounded cool).

Whatever, it was cool! But hen I started dating a guy, and he called me Jay, of course; because that was the only name he knew to call me by, and then a funny thing happened, I started to hate Jay too.

The night after the “I survived my freshman year” celebratory dinner with my parents I called my boyfriend. We were on the phone for an hour, though I was barely able to get a word in edgewise as I listened to him gripe about how much he hated his brother, and how living with his parents again for the next three months was going to be hell for him. Finally he stopped ranting and I started to tell him about the lovely dinner I had just had with my family when he cleared his throat, loudly.

“Are you okay?” I asked.

“Jay, you’ve gotta stop doing that” he sighed.

“What?”

“Interrupting me when I am in the middle of telling a story.”

“Oh, sorry, I thought you were done.”

He sighed loudly again, “Obviously I wasn’t done, Jay.” There was a long pause, I decided it was best not to speak, “Well, I guess I we’ll just talk to tomorrow.” And with that, he hung up.

So yeah, I have definitely figured it out, the reason I hate my name is because for the most part, people only say it when they are mad at you. Or at least they only say it when they are mad at me.

I didn’t hear from my boyfriend the next day, but whatever. The following afternoon I went to Jamba Juice to grab a smoothie and who should I run into but my high school crush. He glanced at me as I walked in, our eyes met… my Razzamatazz smoothie nearly melted... and then the most incredible thing happened. He spoke.

“Julie, wow, it’s so good to see you, I was just wondering if I’d run into you this summer.”

Suddenly my name didn’t seem so bad after all.