Short Autobiography

Hi! We had to write a short autobiography, so I wrote about the story of my name.

The Name of Me: A Short Autobiography on My Name
By Eilidh

My parents didn't choose to know who I'd be. What I mean is, they didn't choose to see if I was going to be a girl or a boy. I have decided that I will do the same thing someday. I think that the surprise, the anticipation would be exciting. It's kind of a beautiful thing not to know. The excitement builds and you can choose different names. My mom didn't want to figure out the names herself. She told me that she didn't want to because naming is big. She didn't want to choose a name that had
stereotypes already assigned to it. So my dad figured out names and
brought them to her and they both decided on two; one if I was a boy
and one if I was a girl.
The boy's name was
Sullivan. I think both my brother and sister had the same naming
process but I don't think that my parents remember either of their
'other' names. My parents chose Sullivan, I suppose in part because
it was a name that no one would have and also because my mother's
maiden name was Sullivan. I would be Sully for short. Maybe. I don't
know. I wonder what it would have been like to be a boy, how much my
personality would be different. Would I be sporty and outgoing or shy
and introverted? Would I spend hours shooting down aliens in
videogames with my friends or would I go to a skateboarding park with
my friends every weekend? I'll never know.
My name, the girl's
name, the name I am, the name they chose was Eilidh. I'm not sure if
they looked up the definition before they named me that. I looked it
up recently. My name is Gaelic and it means “light”. I like it.
I think that a name
molds to fit you as soon as it is given. When you're younger you play
different games and give yourself luscious, exotic names. But as you
grow up you aren't able to imagine yourself with any other name then
the one you have. Eilidh is me and I am Eilidh and under any other
name I would be foreign to myself, an alien. I would be something
else, someone else who is not me.

Everyone messes up
my name and I don't care. I've been called Eyelid and Alidith and
everything in between but I think that that's fine. I like having a
name no one really has in the USA (but lots of people have in
Scotland.) I love my name. I love every letter of it, the sound it
makes. It fits me just right, fits everything I am and everything I
want to be.
I've only met one
other person in the whole wide world with my name. I was maybe nine
and at a riding competition during my short stage of horse-back
riding lessons. My name was announced over the loudspeakers (I'm sure
they either mangled it or talked to my instructor beforehand and said
it right) and soon later a teenage girl ran over. She had the exact
same spelling of my name and she was very excited to see that someone
else had the same name. I didn't really know why then and I'm not
sure if I know why now. Maybe she didn't like being different. Maybe
she didn't want to feel alone. I don't really feel like that.
I am a writer. I am
a dreamer. I am a student, a teacher, a thinker, a listener, a
speaker. I am a leader. I am a reader, a guitar-player, a smiler, a
black-belt, an author, a teenager, a girl, a sister, a daughter, a
friend. I am Eilidh and I am all these things and more. I think my
name fits everything I am and everything I want to be. My name is me.