My Name Vignette

My name in Japanese means “fragrant blossom”. In Chinese it means “beauty”, it means “kindness”, it means “good”. Like the number two, there is a Chinese saying "good things come in pairs”. It is the color of the rain, and the color of the sky after the rain. Is is the washing of my saddness on a gloomy Sunday.

My father once said, “a name is the best gift for one child for it will follow you forever and ever.” They told me, you might not notice how a name affects you, but it causes great disaster or luck to your life and it won’t part you for not one day.

They chose this name wishing to guide my life and fate. My father went through books and books to look for my name. As for my mother, she wanted a name that was able to be heard till the corner of the world. As the saying "good things come in pairs", we needed two matching names for a twin like us. Yuka and Rika.

No one got our names right at first because we look like a mirror straing at each other and names similar to a symmetry. I used to go to Rika’s class in school and she went to mine in the morning to see if we could trick anyone. It didn’t take long for the teachers to figure out our difference, so we were kicked out of the class around the first thirty seconds. We enjoyed fooling people around, friends and teachers.Which is why some of my friends back then still get our names wrong.

I would like to baptize myself under a new name, a name less confusing than this one, something no one will mistake as Rika’s. Yuka as Eve, Sacha, Alexandra or maybe Lola.