Evolution Of My Name

February 21, 2022

Good day everyone! It's Monday again. Time to grind to make our day productive.

Are you sure that your name is really your true name?

Why did I ask that question? This morning, I have read sis @Pachuchay's article. There's a part of her article that I somehow relate. Thus, this made me think an idea what to write today. If you want to read her work you can check HERE.

I have mentioned on my previous articles about my family. I come from a broken family and I grow up living in different houses. When I was 6 years old, my real father took us, together with my youngest sister who was also 5 years old at that time, to his brother's house ,which is my considered father now. My real father left us to his brother's custody. Months after, my real father brought my two other brothers. He promised that he will support us by sending money. The school year was approaching and my considered mother want us to send to school. My two brothers were already at 3rd and 4th grade while me and my sister were sent to a kindergarten. That time, I wanted to go with my brothers' school. I did not go to kindergarten because I didn't like it. Since I was always with my brothers, the teacher from grade one decided to sit in her class. She made me a visitor in her class since I did not able to enroll. But the teacher saw my potential so she asked my considered parents to enroll me and she will find a way for to be accepted. My considered parents agreed and the evolution of my name began.

In enrolling, there will be certain documents to be needed. The teacher asked my considered parents my birth certificate but they don't have one. So, she just asked my real name and my birthday and other important information but unfortunately my considered parents only know my nickname which is Janice. Even me and my sister did not know our real names and when is our birthday. My brothers didn't know also for we didn't grow up together.  They lived in a foundation. They couldn't contact my father right away for there was no cellphone at that time in our place. But the teacher was really determined to let me enroll officially in the school. So, in the end, she made up the information. She just used my nickname and she put a date for my birthday.

Everything was fine. I was being enrolled at grade 1 with the information given by my teacher. I promoted to grade two, grade three and grade four using that name. But in grade four, my teacher wouldn't allow me to graduate if I couldn't pass a document containing my real name and birthday. I informed my real father about it through writing a letter. Writing letters was our mode of communication before. He went home with a Baptismal certificate only. He said that he couldn't get our birth certificate and I forgot his reasons. When we read the Baptismal certificate, it was written in there that my real name is Janeza and not Janice. And finally, I already know when I was born. I passed the Baptismal certificate to my grade four teacher and she corrected my information written in my card and other school documents.

Again, I used that name until high school. But when I was about to graduate at fourth year high school, our teacher required us to pass our birth certificate that comes from the NSO ( National Statistic Office ). Thankfully, our teacher said that she will be the one to get it if we can't go to Tacloban. We just need to pay her for the expenses and we need to fill in the information needed. It was week already before our graduation and our diploma was already made. When I received my NSO birth certificate, I learned that the name that I used for so many years was incorrectly spelled. Instead of Janeza, the correct spelling is Janiza. I informed my adviser about it and she told me to go to the person who made our diploma so that it can be corrected. Thankfully and finally, I was able to correct my real name in all my documents.

And that's how the dramatic evolution of my name. Now, my problem is that in my birth certificate there is a date written in the date of marriage section of my parents where in fact they are not married. What's worse is that in my sister's birth certificate we have different date on their date of marriage. Not just that, there are other information in my birth certificate that are incorrectly filled up. Gosh, I really have irresponsible parents. And when I asked my father about it, he just answered me "wala lang, feel ko lang". 🤦

Thank you for reading this far guys. Till my next blog.

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Lead image is edited using Canva app.