My name is Olga

My name is "Olga"... my name is "Olga"... several times in my life I have found myself repeating this to myself and really thinking how crazy it is that people know me by that name "Olga". My personality and life experiences and who I am is summarized in one word.

I had an interesting experience with my name the other week. It was my first day of lab for my anatomy class and we were learning the bones in the skull. My lab instructor was going around with the roll and trying to learn peoples names and when she came to me I told her my name and she said, "Are you mad at your parents for naming you that?" just kind of matter of factly. Me being used to that kind of response from telling people my name (not necessarily that blunt) I didn't think anything of it, I just smiled and said, "I'm used to it." While I didn't think anything of it my classmate was appalled that my teacher would be so blunt and brought up a conversation about how she likes my name and other old fashioned names, she was really sweet.

While I wasn't offended at all at this comment, it did get me thinking more about my name. I was proud of myself for not getitng offended, I was proud of myself for liking my name and not letting anybody else's opinion affect that. I know that a lot of times "Olga" is thought of as the name that belongs to one of the big viking women who wear horns on their head. I know that when people hear my name before seeing me they expect to see someone "bigger" or possibly foreign. I don't mind this at all and actually love to use it as a joke and conversation piece. Being the shy person I am and also someone who desires to NOT be shy I love having a subject I know so much about be a topic of conversation. :)

So to get it down in writing and for all of those out their who still wonder about my name but are too shy to ask, I am not Russian, however, my name is Russian. In fact, my family is Italian... to which most people say "'Olga' is not an Italian name" no it's not, I am Italian but was named after a Russian, well, that's not technically true, I was named after an Italian who was named after a Russian. I was named after my Nonna (Italian Grandmother) Olga Lucia Bruno Comollo. She was named after St. Olga who brought christianity to Russia.

I have had a lot of interesting conversations based around my name that I would like to reflect on. Most of these conversations don't start as bluntly as the one in my Anatomy lab however. Most people try to be suttle in their wonderings and ask something along the lines of "where are you from?" I remember after a while getting so used to people asking this in reference to my name that one time someone asked me where I was from and I gave the whole speal to them, "Well, my family is from Italy but my name is Russian..." (and continued on like the previous paragraph) and it turned out the person just wanted to know where I lived... like I should've just said Salt Lake City... man did I feel dumb!!! They just wanted a simple answer and I just told them the whole history of my name!

I distinctly remember a couple times in first grade where I wished my name was something more common like "Jenny" or "Brittany" but now I am so glad that my parents chose the unique name they did for me. :) It may be a little on the stranger side but regardless of what Shakespear said I do believe part of me is who I am because of my name.