Have you ever wondered?

Most of you who read this have known me longer than 5 years... And I still get comments all the time about this, so I am just going to air it all out!

Have you ever wondered why I go by Kate? I went by Katy for 23 years...why change? And my real name is Kathryn... Complicated, huh?

Ok, well- here's the scoop.

I am not afraid of change. I actually love change. It's hard sometimes, but it shows me how much I am not in control of my life, and helps me to be okay with it. And usually, things end up turning out better than I ever expected in the first place!

I know this because I was always re-inventing things as a kid... I would draw out diagrams of my bedroom and try to figure out new ways to rearrange my furniture (nerd-alert!). I would go through the pantry and try to re-invent new recipes (Gladly, I haven't made that a career choice, because it would have been a bad one! Crackers with cheese, mayo, and dill pickles? Peanut Butter mixed with Slim Fast powder? Yes, I did.) I even changed the spelling of the name Katie into Katy because I was tired of being one of ten Katies in my classes... so I could be different if I spelled with a Y!

From as long as I can remember, I would watch movies and always see the name Kate come up as one of the characters. I thought it was such an endearing name, and sounded so grown up. I wanted to grow up to be sophistocated, so I made the decision. When I got to college, I was going to go by Kate. (I guess I figured that was when I would become an adult? ha!)

Before the explanation gets too long, I was dating a guy name Nate at the time when I had always thought I would make the change. Who wants to rhyme names with the person you are dating? So, I gave up. Well, we broke up, and I found myself going back to the name Kate.

Right before graduating college, I was talking to Zach about it and he finally said,"Look. You are about to start a job. If you are going to do it, you've got to do it now, or just forget about it!"

And that's it. It was really hard to get going. And I felt a bit dorky for doing it. I got lots of weird reactions (And still do. You people really want to hang on to Katy!) But, 5 years later, I still go by Kate and I am so glad I did! I feel like it fits who I am.

At least until I decide to re-invent myself again. Maybe I'll go by......

;)