Why Pinang?

Hello beautiful people!

I hope you all are doing fine amidst of the shortcomings and uncertainties we may feel day by day. Always remember that a positive life is a happy life. ✨

16th of how many.

We grew up having nicknames. Nicknames that was created at our home, nicknames given to us by our friends, nicknames called us by our crushes, and sometimes our teachers give us nicknames as well. For me, being given this nicknames means that they are comfortable calling you that way more than your name, and nicknames usually is shorter than your real name that is it is easier to call you that way. (Sorry for too many nicknames word on this part.)

Growing up (sana all, lumaki!), in the family I was used to be called Pen or PenPen, that is the shorter name for my real name which is Josephine. I used to be called that way. And I find it cute though.

However, that nickname was not used anymore. It was changed to Pinang. How was it? It was during my 4th year in high school. I was once an SSG Officer in our school, and we have this SSG Adviser. He is actually the one who named me that way. At first, I was like, "Ayaw ko tawaga ingana sir uy, kabati kaayo. Mura naman sad kog tiguwang ana nga dagnay!" ( Don't call me that way sir, its not nice to hear and I was like a grandma with that name.) Sad to say, our adviser did not listen to me. He keeps teasing me using that name that in the long run I got used to it already. Well, I cannot do anything about it anymore. I just accept it and embrace my new nickname. Then, everyone who knows me at school also started to call me Pinang. It was really so new to me, but yes I just enjoyed being called that way. It was cute though!

I thought, the nickname Pinang will not be used anymore during college. Maybe because I was thinking that I will meet new people and my idea about college that time was they will call you using your last name instead. But it did not turn to be that way. I was still used to be called by my nickname. Why I chose to be continued to be called that way? It is because, when someone asked for my name of course I will say Josephine. But when they are the one to say it, I just don't like how they pronounced my name. (Pasensya for being maarte about it.) For me, my name should be pronounced as "Jow-Si-Fin". That's it. But most people that I met, they pronounced it as "Jaw-Se-Fin", which is not correct for me. And of course, it is my name, I wanted to be called by it correctly. That is why after telling them my name, I prefer them to call me Pinang. To be safe. I actually have two people that I like to call me by my real name, it was my Math Teacher during first year higschool and our salutatorian in high school as well. They gave justice on how my name should be pronounced correctly.

With that said, I thought that Pinang will be left as it is in Leyte and that I will get to have another nickname or just my first name to be used when I will be working. But it did not happen. When I started working here in Cebu, I still get to be called that way. At first I was like, please call me by my real name at least. But I again chose not to, because of the same reason. With that I tried to tell them to call me Jo instead, and let my close workmates/new friends call me Pinang. It was okay at first, Jo was fine but in the long run, I was not called it anymore. I do really believe in the supremacy of my nickname Pinang. It is really Pinang until now. And I guess that will be it until then.

And by the way, I have this friend as well that prefers to call me Pinangga rather than Pinang. I actually find it cute too as Pinangga means "dear or I care" in English. Well that's it.

I may be too choosy on how my name should be pronounced, but I really prefer it that way. It is not because I do not like my name, it is just that I wanted to get it done correctly. And I guess there is nothing wrong about that. I love my name and I wanted to here it getting said by someone correctly. And I just wanted to thank our SSG Adviser, for giving me such amazing nickname. I already love how I am called that way.

That's all for today beautiful people. I hope you learned and get something good about my article for today. If you have any thoughts and take away about this piece, feel free to leave it in the comment section below. Let's interact. Stay safe always! Xoxo ✨☺️

- MissJo 💜

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