Andrea Lin--Andrew

On my first day of school, I awaited for my name to be called. After waiting and responding with “here” to signal my presence, a wave of confusion hit the classroom followed by a burst of laughter. This pretty much happens at the beginning of almost every academic year. At the end of class, I’m usually asked several questions and told a couple of statements. “Is there a typo in your name?” “What do you want to go by?” “I like your name.” “Why are you named Andrea Lin?” “I think you should change your name.”

Depending on the situation, I’m usually told those comments privately being given time to properly respond or I’m barraged by several people and give them pretty much vague quick answers like “I was born in Italy, so my name is Andrea Lin,” which makes no sense to someone in the US that doesn’t know that Andrea is a popular male name in Italy.

My nickname Andrew originated in middle school along with other ones such as Lee, Smiley, Russell, Bruce, and Kevin by friends to prevent the teasing I had. Andrew was something my teacher and my friend Andrew suggested in middle school. Russell is the Asian boy from the movie UP that I resembled before puberty, and Smiley was my middle school band nickname for me for when I missed a note and smiled awkwardly as a response. I’m pretty sure the rest were stereotypical Asian names. Andrew ended up sticking around and became my alias the majority of my academic career. The name stuck after having some middle school friends who believed Andrea was a typo spread around that thought, and I decided to go along with it. I personally liked having the alias Andrew because I thought that if I ever got into anything troublesome, I wouldn’t be in trouble if they couldn’t find me because of my alias.

 “That man Andrew Lin is the culprit.”

 “Who is this Andrew you speak of?” “I am Andrea.”

After reading Frankenstein, the Importance of Being Earnest, and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, I started to really think about my name(s). In the case of Importance of Being Earnest, I felt like using an alias did give me another identity. When I go to work or talked with colleges, I used the name Andrea and attempted to give off a professional tone whereas Andrew is used in more casual or quick circumstances. Unfortunately, like in the movie, I have to present my “handkerchief” in order to confirm my identity. After reading Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, I looked back at situations of my name being mixed up by others and even myself. It made wonder what significance there was to my name(s). I remember having five Andrews and two Andreas in the same middle school being a confusing disaster. After reading Frankenstein or the Modern Prometheus, I compared my experience with the many nicknames with the experience of the monster having no name. I thought about the similarities between the two experiences and wondered if having several names gave more meaning to who I was or do the opposite. I also wondered if Andrea Lin represented all my nicknames or none of them.

I was named Andrea because my parents enjoyed Italy and gave me the most popular name there or it was the fact that my parents were expecting another daughter (I have 3 older sisters). Lin was our family name and represented that we are Whenzhounese. I was born in Italy because China has a strict One-Child Policy and because there was a better economic opportunity there for my parents at the time. We moved to New York City when I was about three years old, then to California after they found better work at the sweatshops and flea markets. For me, Andrea Lin represented a journey with my family and my history. I wouldn’t want to let one of the few things that represent that to be changed. …..

Let me introduce myself.  My name is Andrea Lin. I’m Whenzhounese, but I was born in Italy and raised in New York. I like watching tv shows, browsing the internet, and hanging out with my friends during my free time. My hobbies are playing badminton and doing anything creative such as filming, writing, and working on building projects. Some skills or talents I have is staying extremely late for Science Olympiad, playing the trumpet, and doing badass jump kicks. I would like become a successful filmmaker, teacher, or engineer in the near future. Hopefully, I’ll also get a chance to travel the world, meet new people and get to know their names.