Name Issues and College Apps: Just Your Average Teenage Drama

A lot of people seem to be pondering the theme of names and their significance again, which relates, of course, to The Namesake, but also to many of our personal lives.  As seniors in high school, we will soon go off to college and become "adults."  Well, at least we'll try.  So much of being an adult seems to rely on your name-- everything from legal documents to shopping receipts to accident reports require identification.  If you're unhappy with your name, then you see it printed on everything that makes your life official, everything that identifies you as a member of society and an individual.  Some of us are at the age where we can legally change our names, and though, as a child, I had moments where I honestly wanted to change my name, I don't think that I could anymore.  I wouldn't want to deal with what Gogol goes through in The Namesake, how he tries to change his identity completely when he changes his name, and loses a part of himself in the process.  Over the course of high school, I've changed immeasurably, and I don't think that changing my name would accomplish anything other than trying to become someone else, which I don't want to do.

Otherwise, my life now focuses around college applications, and I envy those who have already received acceptance letters.   I wouldn't mind the application process except for the essays.  Oh, those essays... I have no problem writing 22 page data sheets, but a one page essay about why I want to go to a particular school stumps me.  In some ways, I guess that analysis has become a comfort zone for us AP English students, and when we have to break outside of that and just write about ourselves and our desires, we panic because we can't hide behind literary devices.  Or maybe that's just me?  Feel free to comment.