My Name

In Latin my name means young. In French it means soft-haired and vivacious. It means sweet, it means misunderstood. It is like the smell of honeysuckle. A sweet fragrance. It is the laughter of my brother who runs up and down the park, songs like happiness.

It is a popular French name that I share with many. A name so treasured and yet so common, like the stars at night. Anywhere you go you'll find a name like mine. So popular, I wonder why a name so simple can represent so many of us in such an affirmative way. 

My parents gave me my name. My nineteen year old father and my sixteen year old mother coiuld not decide on what to name me, I was their first, their baby girl, so much joy I gave to them. Just like that, as if I were the air they needed to survive. That's the way I did it. 

And the story goes two months later came my brother. He added another layer of happiness unto their lives, the way a rainbow would on a rainy day. I wonder if such drastic change in their young lives ruined their dreams because they had a whole future ahead of them. Julie. That is the name I have been given, I am their baby girl thus my desire is to make them proud. 

At school my name is common, and short for names like Julissa or Juliette. But at home it is a sweeter something, like the sound of the sea, like music, not as sophisticated as my brother's name Joshban-- which is not as simple as mine. Joshban who can at least become Josh. But I am always Julie. I would like to immerse myself under a new name, a name more like the real me, the reserved me. Julie as Violet or Haidee. Yes. Something like Haidee would do.

This poem is about: 
Me
My family
Guide that inspired this poem: 

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