When I showed up in Kindergarten in 1972 there were only seven kids in my class. Me -Beth Anne Wessels, Sherri Sue Smith, Ronda Lynn Van Zuiden, Melinda Kay Shear, Rodger Lee Meurs, Daniel Kettler and Beth Ann Medenblik. Yup another Beth Ann. Of course I had the Queenly, Saintly Anne but I would not figure that out until the Third grade. Hmm what to do when you have a Beth Anne and a Beth Ann? You refer to them as Beth W and Beth M. I HATED being called Beth W and that is why around 7th grade I convinced people to just call me Wessels and by High School even the teachers called me Wessels and that dear friends is why I was not willing to give up Wessels when I got married. But I digress.
When I was pregnant with my daughter, Eric is the one who came up with the name Olivia. I loved this name as soon as he suggested it. It begins with a vowel and it just sounds dignified and at the time unique. I mean how many Olivias did I know? Three and all of them were famous people. So in a small little area in the back of my mind I thought - no one will ever have to use my daughter's last initial to distinguish her from a classmate. HOW WRONG I WAS!!!! MAN! Last year I was slightly annoyed to find out there was an Olivia Smith in Kindergarten at Olivia's school. But I was ok with it because there were two Kindergarten classes and the school had nicely separated the Olivias. But today I was just out right annoyed, almost furious to find out that there is now a third THIRD!!! Olivia in the first grade. There are like 24 kids tops in the first grade and THREE Olivias?? We must have all the Olivias in the city.
I have been able to calm myself down gradually for two reasons. One - there are two first grade classes and currently the other two Olivias are not in my Olivia's classroom. Second, it did not turn out all that bad for me. I hated the initial thing but begin called by my last name was cool. (did I mention that my classmates from high school still refer to Beth M as Beth M even though she is now married and has a different last name?) So Maybe it will still turn out ok for O. Maybe she too will be know only by her last name. Which is fine except that her last name is a GRAIN!!!
The babysitter used to call her OMae since her middle name is Mae. Maybe I can get that to stick... or maybe we will just go back to calling her O.
I will let this go.... really I will. (deep breath, hold it ... and exhale)
3 comments:
I am commenting for Tamara who called me this morning and said - What about calling her Liv??
Yes that was part of the plan all along. Now if I can just convince Olivia of that...
Do you really want to know what happened to Grandma when she went to Kindergarten? It had nothing to do with names but I will tell you anyway. I had a sister who was 9 years older thanI was and I had to wait for her to take me home after morning kindgergaten. She was going home for lunch but I was going home to stay. Being the shy person that I was I didn't dare ask to go to the bathroom during class and I had to go so bad while I was waiting for her that , you guessed it I had an accident while waiting on the steps for my sister. Someone in my class came by and said "you wet your pants" and I lied and said no I must have just sat in a wet spot. I have never forgotten that day. Let me tell you it was a lot worse than being called Beth W.
Grandma R.
So you had a Rodger in your class! I wonder if he had to fight the world to get them to spell his first name correctly? I did!!!!
By the way, that GRAIN last name is RICE! And in high school I acquired the nickname "Barley." Maybe Olivia will get that nickname. Olivia Barley has a nice sound to it.
Grandpa R
Post a Comment