i feel like ranting. ooooh, do i ever.
i've never cared for my name. it's weird to say. it doesn't roll off the tongue like "heel-berrr-toh" does in spanish, but rather sounds like a mixture of lazy jumbled up sounds in english. ..."gyul-brrt." ugh. and believe it or not, it's never been funny when people have come up to me and said "oh!! you mean like in What's Eating Gilbert Grape ???!!" or "oh!! kind of like Dilbert, the comic!" in fact, i hate these jokes so much that out of principle, i refuse to watch the movie. never seen it, never will.
but i never really hated my name until just a few years ago. my father an i have the same name. if my father were the type of person that responsibly managed his life, as all men should, i wouldn't mind having his name. hell, i may benefit from it. but that is not the case, and i've had to deal with the consequences.
a few years ago, i tried to put in an application for an apartment. the guy comes back and says that i have a history of bankruptcy on my account. i calmly explain that my father had filed years back and that we just happen to have the same name. he raises his voice, tells me that it was MY social that he ran, and so i can either pay an extra month's rent plus a fee, or i could leave. i left. (hilariously, this apartment complex is the one that Brandon lived in when i met him. the ones i then lived in without their consent. suck it, rude dood).
i work with the city of fort worth...same as my father. whenever i want to send an email to someone, all i have to do is start typing a last name, and their name appears. my father, being a supervisor (or something, i dunno) over at the municipal court, has lots of random people trying to communicate with him, all the time. but, as the majority of people don't take 3 seconds to make sure they're sending emails to the right person, they start typing "HERNANDEZ" and see "GILBERT" next to it, they go click-happy, and i get the emails. lots of them. all about municipal court crud, and warrants for arrests, and underlings talking about being granted certain days off, and HR people wanting me to show up for the managerial meetings scheduled on such-and-such date. and so i reply, to each one, each time: "Wrong Gilbert" and not another word. they giggle, they say oops, they apologize, but i leave it at that.
i graduated in May, which means that i expected to start receiving my student loan bills right around this time. unfortunately, so did my father. Nelnet, a company composed of flawed and imperfect people that make mistakes, started sending me his bills.......to my new apartment. now, i had no idea that they were his, so i started adding up my loans and thinking i owed X-amount. before making any payments, Brandon advised me to call and make sure they were mine. turns out, nope. they had my address listed as my mother's old house, while they had his address listed as my current apartment. i made the necessary corrections to my account, BUT, because i am not the owner of HIS loans, i could not change the address on his account. meaning, i will now receive, not only my own loans, but his, as well.
so you understand my frustrations, right? i'm beyond eager to change my name. my last name means nothing to me, and i have a hubs i'm crazy-noots for. i won't change the first name (even though it sucks), because i also don't see myself as anything but a Gilbert.
my dear friends, my loved ones, my family... don't bless your child with the same name as a parent. it brings nothing but trouble and frustration.
<3
PS - also, stay away from stupidly spelled or ridiculous names. i will absolutely make fun of you and/or your child. (Chone [Sean], Dallas, Amerika, Will.i.am)
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