final blog post

 So this idea came to me as I was falling asleep last night, and was thinking about any final thoughts I had about time. Something I think we never talked about in relation to time, death, and the idea that people are never truly gone is through names. While it is most common to see names passed down through the male side of families, Jr., Sr, the III, some women have family names as well. I am one of them! My full name is Victoria Catherine, and other than my mom, has a part of every other maternal figure in my family that I have met. Victoria was the name of my paternal great-grandma, and Catherine is the name of my maternal and paternal grandmas, as well as my other paternal great-grandma. However, the spelling of Catherine with a “C” is only shared with my maternal grandma, as the rest of them spell it, Katherine. My parents attempted to modernize Catherine by making it Kathryn but decided tradition was best. 

Other than names bringing connections to the past, they also bring them into the future. I am forever connected to my relatives through my name, and whenever someone asks me about my name, I talk about them. I talk about the qualities that gave me this name, and how important my grandmothers are to me. My great-grandmothers passed away when I was a baby, so I have only heard of them through stories. Especially with my first name, it is also nice for my older relatives to connect me to a past that they lived in that I didn’t. For example, my family will tell stories and laugh about how Grandma Vickie and I are similar. This was something I never really thought of, but I am happy to reflect on it now. I will be sure to share with my family and see if they notice the relationship too. I will also ask my sister, who has a name that has no family connections, what emotions that brings up in comparison to my name.


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