What's in a name

I just spent the better half of an hour searching through blogger to find a blog name that isn't already taken. You wouldn't believe the amount of "Taylor" blogs out there. Here is little taste of what I was up against:

tayblogs.blogspot.com - taken
taylorsblog.blogspot.com - taken
blogbytaylor.blogspot.com - taken
taylorsmith.blogspot.com - taken
taylormarie.blogspot.com - taken
ringger.blogspot.com - taken

and my personal favorite was taylormade.blogspot.com - TAKEN!!!

You see I really wanted the url to be "taylormade" because I have fond memories of running for school secretary in elementary school and my motto was "Taylor Made." No, I didn't win, in case you were wondering, but I don't think I really minded. It was probably more about being in the spotlight, and seeing my name on posters up at school. You see I had just started to like my name.

To understand the metamorphosis from hate to love we have to go back a little bit. I went to school from 1st to 4th grade in Texas. There were not ANY other little kids named Taylor in Texas from 1988 to 1990. None, not a one... you can google it. There were only old men with the last name of Taylor... and I had heard of a singer who's last name sounded like a breed of dog, and her first name was Taylor, but she didn't count because she most definitely did NOT go to Colleyville Elementary School. You know who did go to my school? Girls with amazing names like Tia, and Whitney and Ashley and Cindy... oh to be a Cindy! I hated my name. I even "changed" my name in the 3rd grade. I started writing Marie Ringger on all my papers and turning them in. One day my teacher, Mrs. Starnes, called me up to her big oak desk and asked me if this was my paper that she was holding? Well of course it was mine, she was holding a spelling test with a star on it and in her perfect penmanship she had written "Good Job" at the top. She said that unless she got word from my mother that my name was officially being changed, that Marie was only to be written on my papers after the name Taylor. Well, I wanted the credit for the spelling test you see, so out went my name change!

We moved back to California about a month or 2 into my 4th grade year. In California the girls had all different kinds of names. There was a Shelaine, a Jolie, a Moriah, and that was only in my class. There were many non-cookie cutter names, and I was one of them! So, seeing my name on that Class Secretary poster was a pretty good feeling. This is when I started to love my name.

Well I guess I got on the "blog bandwagon" too late. Oh, well. It's just like I always say... everything happens for a reason.

With a long unique name and a new blog...

- Taylor Marie Ringger Smith ;)