I didn't expect my name to be something that I thought about this year. I'm pretty hashtag blessed to have a name that is also a somewhat common name in Argentina. Amanda Martin? So easy to change to spanish. It's just pronunciation. Amanda in spanish is pronounced similarly to the word almond in english, but without the l. And add an a to the end. And pronounce the "d" like the "th" in "the."
These are things I knew. I remember the exact moment I realized my name was an english/spanish chameleon. I was checking my coat in Peru when we went salsa dancing one night. The woman asked me for my last name, and it just came out of my mouth with spanish pronunciation and my world was changed. I had a TA in a science class who was from Ecuador. The class was taught in english, obviously, since it was science, but he had a spanish accent. One day he handed me back my paper and pronounced my name the spanish way. I automatically responded, "gracias."
In our bible study here, we've been reading through the Old Testament. I'm pretty familiar with these stories; I've been reading them most of my life. Recently, I've been thinking about name changes. Abram became Abraham. Sarai became Sarah. Jacob became Israel. Later, Simon becomes Peter. Saul becomes Paul. They didn't change their names all willy-nilly. Abram didn't just wake up and think, "You know, my name is whatever, but now I'm going to be Abraham." Their names changed when their identity changed. They were called by God. God makes a promise to Abram and Sarai and their names change. Jacob wrestles with God and receives a blessing. Jesus decides to build his church on Simon Peter. Saul has a blinding conversion in the middle of the road.
I've been called a lot of different nicknames. Manda, Mandark, Mandango, Manders, Mandy, Arsty-burpsy-bad-at-mathsy. Nothing as identity-changing as the previous examples. But I do think that I have changed a lot in these last eight months. Probably in ways that I won't understand for a while. All of that has happened with my name being pronounced differently. Part of my identity is changing.
