Value of Names

 When my parents named me, the main thing they thought about is that they wanted it to be both German and English to reflect my heritage. With everyone having a different idea of how to pronounce it, Stefan sounds foreign even to my own ears; sometimes it's Stef-ON, other times Stephen, with the rare Steven thrown in. Most often my name reminds people of twilight or an exotic real estate agent, but to me Stefan most often means school. Stefan means studying hard, getting called on, taking tests - all things intellectual. To me, Lemke references the athlete. Lemke is someone calling me over in the gym, or when I used to get in the starting block at a track meet. Plastered on the back of my jersey or hoodie, Lemke is a more comfortable name in the outside world, with Stefan reserved for school and my parents calling me down to dinner. My name sounds more familiar to me in German, as especially recently that's all I've been hearing. Like my name itself, my connotation of it is also culturally split. When I hear Lemke, I think more in English, but when I hear Stefan, my mind goes straight to German. As I get older, more and more meanings constantly get tacked on to my name, and it made me realize that we can decide for ourselves what our name means. Some people want to be remembered as the next political activist, others as an elite athlete, but regardless of the goal, what we do on a daily basis determines what value our name holds.