I am super stoked about this summer project that is starting at A Readable Feast. OK, so I’m a total nerd, the one sitting alone at the lunch table with her nose in a book who just couldn’t get enough of school, even during the summer months. You found me out!
I think I’ve grown out of my nerdiness but it comes through at moments like this when I discover a wonderful and creative idea to get the creative juices flowing and to encourage our children to practice what they’ve learned all year in school. There are many studies and reports out now telling us how much kids forget during the summer months so if you can put a fun spin on something educational, your kids will be more likely to remember the lesson.
Anyway, this week Ann-Marie at A Readable Feast invites us all, children and parents alike, to challenge our minds and write about our names and nicknames. While this is fun to do with our kids (well, that is still to be determined in my house), I’d like to invite my little bit of the blogging world to join in with the assignment.
My name is Christina and my parents gave me the name because it has the name “Christ” within the spelling. Yes, I grew up in a very devoted Catholic home and my 3 brothers are named after the apostles. I’m rather ambivalent about my name…never hated it or loved it. It’s just a part of who I am so I never ever considered changing it. I think my parents would be extremely hurt if I went through the costs and hassle of going to court to pursue a name change; afterall, a name is one of the most important things we give to our child and I know I wouldn’t understand if either of my girls wanted to change their names.
As for nicknames, I didn’t really have any growing up. All the kids in my family were known by their full names. At one point another girl named Christina moved in right next to us but she was known as Chrissy so there really wasn’t any confusion over who was getting called by whose parents. I went to a Catholic school, grades K-8, and around grade 5 kids started calling me “Weiner” but I truly don’t remember why. Maybe because I was kind of tall and lanky? Or maybe it was for a worse reason that I have blocked from my memory; I was the nerd, afterall. I went along with it because it felt like I belonged to a group, now that I had a nickname.
In college I was christened with the nickname “Sti” and that has stuck with some friends all these years later. I still remember the day, it was the 1st night in the dorms and being the quiet, shy nerd I remember giving myself a pep talk, convincing myself to leave my room and hang out with all the kids making noise in the hall because if I didn’t do it then, I wouldn’t ever leave the sanctuary of that dorm room (with a roommate who was even nerdier than I was!) So I left and quietly made myself a part of the group, and a very outspoken girl named Rachel said to me, “Does anybody ever call you Sti?” and it stuck from that moment 20 years ago. Talk about feeling accepted into a group of wonderful people, many of whom are still friends today.
OK, I think I’ve rambled enough for one day.
