Names

I've been meaning to write about this for a while, I just keep staying up too late at night to write it.

Names have always been something I give a lot of importance to. A name is not just what a person is called, but it's a summary of who they are. If I say "Michael Jackson" or "Mahatma Gandhi," it brings to mind everything that person did, everything they stood for, and everything that made them who they were.

When I began my androgyne journey, the idea of having a new name occurred to me fairly early on. I was following a number of bigender and transgender people on YouTube, and all of them had adopted names that fit who they really were.

I have a fairly gender-neutral first name, but I can't stand being called by it. I've always gone by my first and middle names put together, which makes a very feminine name. But I wanted to have a name to reflect the person I'm becoming. I pored over several websites of gender-neutral baby names and came up with a few I kind of liked: Skye, Skylar, and Dakota were my favorites. But the one that jumped out at me was Hadley. It's an Old English name meaning "from the heath-covered meadow." It's not very common, at least not as a first name, which really appealed to me (I've always liked being a little bit different from the crowd).

So...Hadley it is. I'm only using it online for now, to see what I think of it. I've started a new Facebook page (ugh, Facebook! But the whole world seems to be on it) using my new name, and I'll find other places to start using it, too.

If you'd like, you can look me up on Twitter, here is my page.

All for now. I'll be back soon with good news from my employer.

Where've I been??

I seem to be on a publishing schedule, even if it's not on purpose. Seems like I'm posting a couple of times early each month, then disappearing for a couple of weeks.

So where have I been? My journey seems to have stalled, or else I've reached a point where I'm happy with where I am, or maybe it's just not my top priority right now. Methinks it's some of each of the latter two.

I do have a lot else going on right now. My son's schoolwork load is getting bigger, so it takes more time to help him keep up. Work is a little bit crazy - we're kind of behind right now, and one member of my small team is moving to another division at the end of the week. Plus, I'm going through what, earlier in my life, might have been a bout of depression. Thankfully, I don't have an issue with depression anymore, but I do have times when I'm a bit lethargic and apathetic for a week or two, and I don't do anything except what absolutely HAS to be done. Plus, a friend just got me hooked on Minecraft...erm, yeah, got stuff going on. *laughs*

On the upside, I have not experienced that maddening urge to dress up all girly this month. Quite the contrary: I'd love to order several plain T-shirts and button-down shirts, get a few new pairs of trousers, and start dressing more like a man. Just as well I never ordered those dresses, I saved myself a chunk of change on something that I would probably have only worn once.

Guess that's it for now. A quick hello to Page - thanks for stopping by! I've been following her blog for a while now. You can find it here.