Who am I?

By Gina Gim

My Name



Not many people are satisfied with their own names. This is mainly because it's the parents who choose their babies' names, not the newborns themselves. To be honest, I was never satisfied with my name, "Gina Gim,"until today; both my last and first name irritated me for a very long time.

As I grew up,I noticed that my last name is very unique. Most Koreans use "Kim" as their last names, but mine was a bit different. It was my dad who decided to use a "G" for the first letter of his last name. In fact, "Gim" sounds closer to the original Korean pronunciation of our last name, which many people use it as "Kim."I was left with no choice but to follow his last name.

But somehow, I was not so comfortable with people asking me why I had an extraordinary last name; in fact, I felt very disturbed. I was not satisfied with my first name, either because my Korean name and English name are basically the same. Many students in Korea have two names: an English one and a Korean one. As an immature and young child, I wanted my name to be "Sally" and I hated the fact that my friend chose that name instead of me because I already had an English name, "Gina."

However, now that I think of it, I am most satisfied with the uniqueness of my name: how no one else in the world has such a peculiar last name. I also found out a few years ago that the root of my first name is Georgia, my hometown in America. Now, I realize my name is the biggest and the the most sincere present from my parents and that loving my own name is equivalent to loving my own self, and because I do love the way I am, or who I am, I am now very gratified with my name.

Links to other sites on the Web

Portfolio 2007

Portfolio 2008