Spring A. Wood & Dispatcher Hyman*
2 unfortunate names i've come across at my job forming one unfortunate sentence, now the topic of one unfortunate post.
my name, as you may know is 'shin'. this caused me much distress in my younger years. imagine if you will the cruel machinations of the child's mind. imagine the unbelievable amount of nicknames and bad jokes i was subjected to. one guy actually believed himself clever by calling me 'leg' for about 2 years before i had to save us all by dicing him up and feeding him to some unsuspecting fools in the form of slim jims. **
i was once introduced to a girl who's first response was not "hi, nice to meet you" but chose instead this witicism "people must kick you in the shins alot." i decided that i couldn't be bothered to continue the relationship and ended it before it even began.
the curse of my name is that it sounds very similar to another four letter word. and i found myself responding to loud swearing. at parties when i introduced myself under a cloud of loud music, "you're name is shit?". so i took to introducing myself as "shin, with an 'n'."
noone ever believes my name when i tell it to them, the most common assumption is 'shane'. so during my highschool years i chose a new 'american' name to go by. it was usually randomly selected and various groups of friends new me by different names. my one friend chris knew me by all of them and shifted smoothly in and out depending on who we were hanging with. i finally settled on one name for a couple of years before switching back to my given name. that was after i learned my name meant "the rising sun" rather than "front part of the leg below the knee".
here's an example of how phone conversations might have gone. the first time i ever called my friend heidi:
"Hi is Heidi around?"
"No can I take a message?"
"Yeah, could you tell her Shin called?"
"Jim?"
"No, Shin"
"Tim?"
"No Shin"
"Chip?"
"Umm....just tell her Eric called."
on a similar note, i learned by an unfortunate accident, that if you say 'eric' quickly followed by 'shin' it displeases the gentle folk.
*his name wasn't dispatcher, that was his job title as he was an officer of the law.
** this didn't happen. who eats slim jims?
my name, as you may know is 'shin'. this caused me much distress in my younger years. imagine if you will the cruel machinations of the child's mind. imagine the unbelievable amount of nicknames and bad jokes i was subjected to. one guy actually believed himself clever by calling me 'leg' for about 2 years before i had to save us all by dicing him up and feeding him to some unsuspecting fools in the form of slim jims. **
i was once introduced to a girl who's first response was not "hi, nice to meet you" but chose instead this witicism "people must kick you in the shins alot." i decided that i couldn't be bothered to continue the relationship and ended it before it even began.
the curse of my name is that it sounds very similar to another four letter word. and i found myself responding to loud swearing. at parties when i introduced myself under a cloud of loud music, "you're name is shit?". so i took to introducing myself as "shin, with an 'n'."
noone ever believes my name when i tell it to them, the most common assumption is 'shane'. so during my highschool years i chose a new 'american' name to go by. it was usually randomly selected and various groups of friends new me by different names. my one friend chris knew me by all of them and shifted smoothly in and out depending on who we were hanging with. i finally settled on one name for a couple of years before switching back to my given name. that was after i learned my name meant "the rising sun" rather than "front part of the leg below the knee".
here's an example of how phone conversations might have gone. the first time i ever called my friend heidi:
"Hi is Heidi around?"
"No can I take a message?"
"Yeah, could you tell her Shin called?"
"Jim?"
"No, Shin"
"Tim?"
"No Shin"
"Chip?"
"Umm....just tell her Eric called."
on a similar note, i learned by an unfortunate accident, that if you say 'eric' quickly followed by 'shin' it displeases the gentle folk.
*his name wasn't dispatcher, that was his job title as he was an officer of the law.
** this didn't happen. who eats slim jims?
Comments
For what it's worth, I think Shin is a most excellent name. Very strong and distinguished.
My brother and I had a fabulous driving instructor: Roy Seamens.