What's in a Name?
Adjusting to married life has been an adventure! There are lots of fun, exciting, strange, and downright puzzling things about all of sudden combining your life with someone else's.
The first thing I did when I got back to work after the honeymoon was change my name on all our systems at work. Within an hour emails were going out from me with the name "Bethany Fitelson" in the heading. As I saw the change take place "officially" in writing, it was really fun and really...odd. Not in a bad way, but odd.
Just an hour ago, a week and a half after my name was changed at work, a long-time friend and co-worker was asking someone "Who is this Bethany Fitelson person who keeps sending me emails?" Another friend reminded him that I had been married and changed my name. I overheard the whole conversation and butted in, laughing hysterically. He said "I knew you had gotten married, but I've known you for 10 years as Bethany Hall, so the change didn't register in my mind." I countered that I've known me as Bethany Hall for 26 years, so the change was ever weirder to me!
I just spent the last 30 minutes or so trying to make a new signature. I can't even remember how to write a cursive F! Writing the entire name Fitelson in cursive is a bit daunting. I'm not even sure how you go about changing your signature "officially." I guess I can do that when I change my name legally. First I have to get the official marriage certificate, then get a new Social Security card, then get a new license. I have to do all this AND bear children?
I like the name Fitelson, as hard as that is to believe. I like it because I love a man named Danny Fitelson and I'm excited to join my life to his -- in every way. We're no longer Danny and Bethany...we're the Fitelsons! I love that! I just wonder how long it will before I answer the phone "This is Bethany Hall, uh, Fitelson, uh..."
I would love to hear from other women who have dealt with this exciting but odd change in the past! Leave me a comment or send an email and share any advice you have on this whole process!
posted by Bethany @ 12:37 PM
4 Comments:
bethany, I am with you! I don't know who this Kelli Duhaney is, but I better get used to it! I have countless scraps of paper with my new name scribbled on it! What a fun time. If one of my greatest concerns is how to write my new name, I have it pretty good. :)
Thanks for the encouragement girls! It definitely is a fun time. Meagan, it's fun to see that others stumble with the new name as much as we do! I sent emails to Campbell Church members and heard stories about people having no idea who they were from. An elder's wife made a comment to my sister: "Bethany Fitelson? Do you know her?" You're right Kel, if my biggest problems are getting used to my new name then life is good. My other big problem is getting a huge stack of thank you notes written because people were amazingly generous. I really can't complain!
I'll let you in on a little secret...you know how you have to initial stuff at work all of the time? My initials "AS" were so deeply entrenched in my brain that I never could make the S into a G. The fact that it's completely illegible and to the untrained eye looks like a squiggle has hidden this secret for eight years now..."Gabrielson" is a reeeeeally long name to learn to write in cursive, so it devolved pretty quickly into a G, squiggle, b, squiggle, tall squiggle (2) and long squiggle.
I heard about the name question yesterday at family bbq at my gmas house. Amber was laughing and telling us about it, hehe its soo sad yet so funny that he didnt realize it was you!..Hes a little slow sometimes hah
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