“I can’t wait until I get married,” I emphatically say while barely squeezing out a legible scribble. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
This has become a running joke (just between me and myself) every time I have to sign for anything. <\/em>My last name is long. 10 letters. Pair that with a first name that’s 9, and you’ve got yourself a headache. <\/p>\n\n\n\n My name has always been a source of pain, not only because of its similarities to “shoe maker,” (which led to a lot of “ha ha, do you make shoes?” jokes as a child), but because of its sheer length. Over the years, I’ve taken a real medical approach to my signature, which is to say…my signature is basically one giant, incomprehensible mess.<\/p>\n\n\n\n My “dream” (I say that very lightly) was to marry someone with a shorter last name, that way, signatures wouldn’t be such a struggle. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Cue Kyle. Kyle’s last name is Berger (he, too, was a victim of middle school jokes). Definitely shorter than Schumacher, but only by four letters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Kyle and I are going to get married this year, and what was once an easy decision has now become difficult. Do I take his last name? Do I keep my own? Do I keep both?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n The hard part is that it doesn’t even feel like my <\/em>decision to make at times. If we’re speaking in terms of tradition, keeping my last name is basically a slap in the face. A gross power move made by a feminasty. If I take his last name, am I disappointing my fellow feminists? If I keep both…jesus christ, my signature.<\/em> Schumacher-Berger is really a combo move that nobody asked for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When I ponder on this, I come to the realization: it is 100% my decision to make<\/em>. If anyone has an opinion, it’s unwarranted. My name is more than a name\u2014it’s my future. It’s the name that is going to be appear on legal documents; it’s how I will be known to the world. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Yes, legacy <\/em>sometimes feels like a dumb word. I mean, come on, we’re not in some epic poem, but that’s the word that keeps worming itself back into my mind. Legacy. <\/em>My name feels like a part of me. A name that ties me to my parents, both of whom I love and don’t ever want to feel disconnected from. I am an only child. I do not have a brother to carry on the legacy <\/em>of Schumacher. <\/p>\n\n\n\n That’s why I made the decision to mix the old with the new. In 2021, I will become Elizabeth Schumacher-Berger. I get to keep my family while becoming a part of a new one. <\/p>\n\n\n\n It’s funny, because now I’ll have to sign 25 letters. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Hello world, Elizabeth Schumacher-Berger is ready to let out some amplified sighs every time she has to sign something. <\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" “I can’t wait until I get married,” I emphatically say while barely squeezing out a legible scribble. This has become a running joke (just between me and myself) every time I have to sign for anything. My last name is long. 10 letters. Pair that with a first name that’s 9, and you’ve got yourself a headache. My name has […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":892,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pgc_sgb_lightbox_settings":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-82","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-thoughts-and-rants"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lizandkyle.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lizandkyle.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lizandkyle.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lizandkyle.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lizandkyle.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=82"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lizandkyle.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":893,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lizandkyle.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82\/revisions\/893"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lizandkyle.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/892"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lizandkyle.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=82"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lizandkyle.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=82"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lizandkyle.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=82"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}