I have always liked my name because it is different. I have especially come to appreciate my unique name since moving here. It is difficult to keep up with which Sergey, Natasha or Sveta is which. Up until last week I had never met anyone who had my same name. I know plenty of Suzanne’s, Susan’s or Suzie’s but I have never met another Susanna. Then there is the pronunciation problem with my name. You know the one that limits the group of people who pronounce my name correctly to my family, friends (most having been tutored to do so) and the occasional foreigner. Where I was visiting one of the popular girl names is Susana. I even met one! I also met a lot of people who upon being introduced to me made the comment “oh, my such and such relative/friend is named Susana.” Seriously. They even pronounce it the same – as their single n has the same sound as my double n. It was super crazy to hear my name being called by people not talking to me!
Also, for one whole week I was surrounded by people with dark, curly hair! Everywhere. Nearly everyone. I attended a meeting with my friend and in a room of about 70 or so people, there was one lady with grey hair, my friend with red hair and one bald guy. Everyone else had dark hair. It is the culture for young girls to wear their hair long; so me and my long, curly, dark hair sat in a sea of long, dark haired girls. Most of them had various levels of curly hair. It was awesome. Completely amazing!
It was fun to realise that there are people out there in the world who look like me and share my name. For a short time, the world just felt a little smaller and a little more normal … and I enjoyed it.
