One of the lessons I learned on the Camino was about changing one’s identity by changing his/her first name.
My friend Gary (aka Gazze) from Australia is a great guy, but probably the slowest hiker I have met on the Camino 
Everybody walks his own rythm, so no worries mate!
He used to introduce himself as ‘Gary’. This one day, somebody misunderstood and thought his name was Kevin. Since people are always asking around when people had started (and where), you can imagine he was the “talk of the day” once and a while. So, they spread the word about this slow, sympathetic Aussie, named Kevin, on the Camino…
Of course, he tried to explain over and over again that his name was Gary, not Kevin. Nothing could help, so after a while, he started to accept that people called him Kevin. When exchanging addresses he even writes Kevin now, so that people remember who he really was.
Another great friend I have met, is Sandrita. She is from my hometown, but I never met her before. We used to live 25 years in the same town, but had different schools, friends, interests, etc. Now, her real name is Sandra, but she travels a lot and especially to South America. A single, cute blond girl always gets a lot of attention from the latin ‘lovers’, so her name was changed into the lovely ‘Sandrita’. And she still goes by that name…It really suits her
So how does your first name affect your identity? If it changes, are you still the same person? Do you ask all your friends to call you by your new name? How do they respond?
And just how important is your first name for you ?
When I look back at my own past, I once had short hair and we had 2 Berts in the classroom. So, I was ‘Ernie’ for a while (yes, I already know the joke about the banana!). Later on in the gaming comunity my nickname was ‘Tsunami’ (I was a heavy Defender, sweeping most attacks and a swift Scout, stealing their flag!)
What about your nicknames? What’s the story behind it… I invite you to share
Enjoy every day,
Bert
Posted by bertverdonck 
