Identity Crisis Resolved

You may recall back in October when I first wrote about my identity crisis. To recap, for all these years I had only known how to say my name in Cantonese. When it was translated for me into Mandarin Chinese a few years back (coupled with me not really remembering too clearly exactly how to write it), I ended up with the 2nd character in my name written... incorrectly. This was not discovered until my parents came in October, saw my student ID card, and thereby informed me that I had written my name wrong.

Imagine if you were male and your name was Miguel, and you lived in Mexico. Upon moving to the United States, you decide to choose a more-English sounding name. Well, naturally, Miguel probably translates over to Michael... but some Spanish and English speaking friend of yours decides to translate your name to Michelle instead. So, for your first semester of college in the United States, all of your friends and teachers call you... Michelle.

So, ok, maybe my situation was not so drastic - I think the incorrect Chinese name I had through this semester was gender neutral. But still, it was slightly embarrassing letting my teachers know one by one that, well, I spelled my name wrong this whole time.

Last week, I pulled the trigger and asked our department administrator to change my name officially - to the correct character. I received my new student ID today (with the same picture, heh heh!). My name is now written as it should be. But it will take some getting used to for my teachers and classmates to begin calling me by my correct name, and for me to respond to it.