my name

A story about my name...

My mom said, she initially wanted to name me "Agustina" coz I was born in August, or "Adventia" coz it's the name of the hospital where I was born, but she's scared my student number will be the first ( the student number is alphabetical)

My mom said, she checked the phone book to see whether anyone has "Ferninda" as a name. She found 'Fernanda', 'Linda', 'Ferlinda', but she didn't find Ferninda, so she gives me this name. There's no meaning, but she said, my student number will be in the middle, so I do not need to feel unprepared when the teacher calls me and I do not need to wait for too long to be called.

My baptism name is "Patrycia". She had thought about it before I got baptized, that's why my baptism name is written on my birth certificate. Unlike other people, my baptism name was put after my given name, coz if she put in front of my given name, it doesn't go along with her purpose giving me a name started with an "F".
During the Confirmation preparation, we were asked to find out about our patron saint. I couldn't find St. Patricia! So I gave up and thought that my name was derived from St. Patrick. But last year Dom told me that there is St. Patricia. Her feast day is 25 Aug, 1 day before my birthday :)

So...That's my name..Ferninda Patrycia.. I don't have family name. I don't have Chinese name. My mom's chinese surname is Li, but my grandpa from my dad's side is not Chinese, so I do not inherit Chinese surname. My dad's last name is "Pribadi" (it means "self"), but it's not his family name. My mom once said that we will use "Pribadi" as our family name if we are already rich, not now. Hahahahaha.

My confirmation name is "Maria". So my name now is.. Maria Ferninda Patrycia. I actually chose St. Flavia, but in the parish near my school where I got confirmed, we could only choose out of 5 female saints or 5 male saints. The options were Helena, Odelia, Maria, ...., .... (forgot!!) At that moment, I didn't know about other saints, so I just chose "Maria" since she's our mother and I'm familiar with her life story.

Talking about my name, let's talk about my nickname. I always introduce myself as Ferninda and I will make sure the people pronounce my name correctly or be able to spell my name ("Ferninda" not "Verninda", "ferNinda" not "ferLinda") before I smile and say "I'm sorry my name is difficult." My mom always calls me "Da". "Daaaaaaaaaa....wake up", "Da, why haven't you taken a shower?" but when she refers to me as 3rd person, she always mentions "Ninda is going...." "Ninda will..." That's why neighbors call me "Ninda". My uncle and his wife also call me "Da", but my aunt (the one in Taipei) calls me "Da" if shouting, but "Ninda" for slow emphasis on sth. It's sth like this " Nindaaaa.... I've told you ....." :P

Nic calls me "Nda". I dunno since when. Nyz also calls me "Nda". In high school, my friends suddenly called me "Ida" coz we have another friend, called "Vero". when they called "Fer/Ver", both of us came, so they called me "Da", just like my mom did. My church friends in Indo call me "Ninda". My tutors/ lecturers in Singapore, in the first lesson always call me "Patrycia", then I'll say "Yes, I'm here. Please call me Ferninda." Then, I'll help them to pronounce my name :P

In Singapore, I realize people never call me "Fer!" like at schools. They will say "Ferninda..." "Ferninda..." "Ferninda...", except the Indonesian friends. Some Indo friends do call me "Ninda", and Dom (plus Edbert now also starting) call me "Da". There is this friend in hall calls me "Da Da" coz I call him "Wee Wee". hahaha

The idea to write about my name just came up when I was on the bus. When I suddenly thought about my name, I remembered my parents, my family, my friends. Somehow I started recall how this person calls me, how that person calls me, how this person used to call me and how an event can change how he or she calls me. I also automatically recalled how it feels when a person calls me like that, how my friend expression is, how my parents' tone is when they call me (my mom has a particular 1st call, 2nd call, and 3rd call -warning- intonation), How I always end my email with 'nda' as referred to myself "Nda loves nic,pril,nyz" or "Nda loves fgg" (they're all my best friends, with special nickname too :P)

D - 4.
I'm just to far, from where you are, I wanna come home...