Well, ten years after the breakdown of my marriage, and two years after the divorce was official, I have finally changed my name back to Curran. I tried this once before, some of you may remember, shortly after "Michael" (code name for my ex) and I separated, but I think it was too soon. I didn't really feel like I was Niki Curran anymore, and more importantly, I still loved "Michael", and was hopeful that we could work through our troubles and save our marriage. Needless to say, that did not happen. And now after many years of explaining the ethnic background of my married name (no, it's not Italian or Greek, it was actually shortened a few generations back, and it's Ukranian), I began to miss the pride of my Irish heritage most evident in my maiden name. And after checking with my two sons to ensure that no one would be upset if I changed my name to something different from theirs, I started the change back to Niki Curran.
It's funny how I thought (hoped?) my fellow Curran family members would be happy about it, or at least comment on it, but most have not mentioned it, at least not yet. Perhaps they haven't yet noticed my new name on Facebook, Twitter or this blog? Oddly enough, the person making the biggest deal so far is my sister-in-law who is not even a Curran by blood, but became a Curran by marrying my brother, lol. At any rate, it's interesting to realize just how many things in my life have my name on it. I started a list on the weekend of everyone to be notified and everything to be changed. And I find myself adding to that list several times a day as I think of new things. Today a coworker was talking about purchasing something off e-Bay. And I figuratively slapped my forehead, and said to myself, crap, my eBay account has to be changed! As I go about making all the necessary changes, I find myself getting happier as I change more and more things. It's funny, but it kind of reminds me of when I was doing this some 13 years ago, only in reverse. I was so very happy to be married, and changing all my bank accounts, credit cards, email addresses etc. to my new name was exciting and thrilling, especially when so many people congratulated me on recently getting married. I have already had to explain once to a work colleague (as I'm sure I will do so many more times in the near future) that no, I did not recently get married, just reverting back to my maiden name after getting divorced a couple of years ago. But funny enough, that same work colleague said to me, well congratulations on that then. And I had to laugh. Ten years ago, when I first tried going back to Curran, I would not have laughed. Quite honestly I probably would have burst into tears. It's amazing how the last ten years have changed my perspective. Have I gotten older? Most certainly. Have I gotten wiser? Damn straight.
