NaBloPoMo #7

NaBloPoMo #7  -  National Blog Posting Month

Question: Has anything traumatic ever happened to you? Describe the scenes surrounding a particular event 

My Response: One of the early traumatic events of my life was finding out that I wasn't me.

Today was also traumatic enough through the mere act of eXamining my whole life in order to answer this question in an entertaining way without telling you about:

A) watching my brother get ran over by an automobile while riding a bike (he survived)

B) watching someone die right in front of me at work from a massive heart attack while the paramedics tried to save her 

C) slowly come to the realization that one of my relatives had most likely been murdered by his wife from an overdose of his medicine

On the first day of first grade I discovered something about my first name. I wasn't an Ernie. Legally. For the previous 6 years of my life that was the name everyone called me every single time there was a "me" calling.

The first grade teacher had gone to the trouble of making paper crowns with our names on them in pencil. Then we, who hadn't learn to write yet, were instructed to trace the lines of the letters with Elmer's Glue, in order that they could be sprinkled with glitter. Then the teacher would adjust the piece of paper to the child's head size and fasten it, probably with a stapler, I've lost that level of detail.

But, she couldn't find The Ernest in the room. That wasn't MY name, so I naturally didn't answer. I knew that Ernest was my maternal grandfather's name. I found out later that it was actually his middle name. His first name was Champion. Ironically he didn't like his real first name either. So I was eventually thankful, many years later, that I was named after his middle name and not the first, The Champion.

BUT I was not pleased at all when the teacher somehow figured out who I was and what my legal name really was.

I was  c r u s h e d.