Friday, August 19, 2005

The Name Game
I was annoyed the other day thinking about my name, Krystle. I neither hate it nor think it’s the greatest name there is. But it is mine and there for I like it. While common, to me it still seems uncommon. I’ve only known two other Crystals besides the two in my family and other than myself.

I’m glad my dad named me Krystle because it’s not a name for me to hate although he supposedly named me after some singer I’m not familiar with. A teacher of mine in 8th grade asked if I’d ever heard of the song “Crystal-Blue Persuasion” and my answer was no and I’d guessed he thought my name was from the title; a few days after I heard it in my then art class. I don’t really remember its tune, but I do remember I thought it sounded okay.

Some people’s minds think of certain things or pictures form in their mind’s eye when they hear certain words. My mind does this with some names in particular like Emerald, Pearl, and Diamond in that I think of what the name refers to, but not with Ruby (with this name I actually think of rupees). I wonder if people think of crystal when they say my name. I sure don’t.

Now what I find annoying about my name is whenever someone says it, I automatically think they’re addressing me. And then with names like Christian, Christine, Kristy, Christopher, Kristina, and Christen the first syllables always get my initial attention. Three years ago I had a class with girl named Krista and my teacher and most of the other students always said the last syllable of my name softly so it sounded very much like Krista. So there were many times when someone would call me and she’d be the one to stand or speak and vice versa. That got tiring after a while and I often thought to myself, If you all would just say it right in the first place!

Lastly, what irked me was the time one of my teachers was explaining something to the class. And I wasn’t paying attention because it dealt with class behavior and I seldom have trouble with that. So I was just looking down at the work I was doing for another class when I heard a person say, “CRYSTAL!” I suddenly looked up and my eyes darted across the room to see who had urgently called me. I went back to my work and soon heard again, “CRYSTAL!” I looked around the room again with a slightly frantic expression (What?! What is it? running through my mind) because it seemed to me someone was trying to get my attention. My classmates laughed when they saw how I was looking about the room. I realized then that someone was only loudly replying to what the teacher said to the class after her explanation, “Is this clear to everyone?”

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