When I went off to college, away from my twin, I was mostly known by my full last name or yet another abbreviated version. I guess they defined me at the time, but not sure if I ever liked being called them.
Then post college life came and I joined the workforce. Then my label changed to, "this is Chris, she's a <insert job title here>. Again, these labels were not defining who I am.
For a while I was known as cruisechic cause I always went on cruises...okay...
In the past few years I did earn a name through my running club that I love and honestly partially defines me..."Awesome Girl". It started from a joke about a super hero swim suit I bought, but I became "Awesome Girl" through my hard work and dedication to coming back from an injury. To me, "she" doesn't let anyone or anything get her down, or if it does, she wipes off the dirt and gets back up. (Lol..to this day, when I have a particularly scary hard swim, I wear it - it gives me super powers)
But...things changed in the last year...my coworkers began introducing me as "this is Chris, she's a business analyst and she does triathlons"...then all things changed after my half ironman...
"this is Chris, she's a triathlete (and she's one of our analysts 😊 )." I did a double take the first time. I loved it. For the first time in my 47 years...I had an identity I was proud of...THAT was me...THAT IS ME.
Hi, my name is Chris and I'm a triathlete.
Who are you? Who do you want to be?
That moment. That moment when you are driving/riding down the road by a forest. The forest is thick with trees. Then a slight bend in the road, and you see down a perfect row, and realize that the forest was really planted trees. That moment when they come into clarity. When people find and have that moment, it is one of the few things in life that will bring tears and goosebumps, Every Time. Thank you for sharing this post Chris. I Love It! - BryanB
ReplyDeleteI love that you're being identified as something strong that you chose for yourself...I love that others are embracing this identity that you work so hard on!
ReplyDeleteI don't get identified as a runner much, but once in class my students were doing impressions and their impression of me was reading and running, which I thought was nice.
Isn't it an awesome feeling. I have yet to do an OLY (coming Sept), but someone introduced me as a triathlete and an athlete. I did a double take. When I tried to correct them, they countered with all my workouts and events and asked "How do you think that you're NOT an athlete?" I never saw myself that way, I'm just a newbie in my eyes.
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