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What's in a name? The consequences of being Leland Joseph (Part III)
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STILL WATERS
About the world we live in and life in general (The Consequences of Being a Dela Cruz)
(The consequences of being Leland)
In my father's house, there are many rooms.
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I can pretty much tell at what point in my life I met you depending on what
you call me. My family (including my in-laws) and most of my relatives call
me Land (except for some strange reason, the family of my eldest
uncle on my mother's side. Of the four siblings, Tito Vic is the most
Spanish in bearing so maybe it's beneath them to call me anything but
Leland). My classmates in high school and everyone I was with in college
(including one or two teachers) also call me Land. The Sanggunian
batches I moderated from 1995 to 2000 also called me Land, a tradition
started by Pam Lim, the President of the Sanggunian in 1995. (The
Sanggunian of those times always had the unique privilege of being
comfortable enough to call me Land when everyone else called me sir).
Lately though, I've been hearing my nickname less and less and Leland more and more, which to a large extent, appeals to me more than being called Land. I think things started changing when Ateneo required us to drop our cutsie e-mail addresses like [email protected] (which still works, by the way) or [email protected] or [email protected] and switch to the more formal [email protected] or [email protected] or [email protected]. I recently asked the administrative assistant at the Vice-President's office to officially change my nickname from Land to Leland (and make the corresponding changes to the nametags they make us wear) and she agreed that was a good move. I guess the shift from Land to Leland also reflects the fact that I've been with Ateneo for twelve years and have out-grown the "Land" stage when I was more associated with students rather than faculty. Besides, Land is too familiar and hardly anyone in this world can make the claim that they are too familiar with me. In a sense, being called Leland is like returning to the way things were 20 years ago. When I was in elementary, everyone called me Leland and I remember my best friend, Ek (short for Sunchanan Charanyananda) refused to call me Land even if he knew that was my nickname (and I really don't mind these things). The only difference between now and before is that the pronunciation is different. Because we were in Thailand, the "land" part of Leland was pronounced as "land" and not "lùnd" (bland and not rotund) and they tended to put the emphasis on the "land" rather than the "Le" so it came out as Lee-LAND. When I send e-mails to strangers, I usually insert my signature which proclaims my name to be Leland Joseph just so that they get my gender down pat. By itself, "Leland" can be androgynous. The people who don't know what to call me are the students who've graduated. Around school, I'm called sir by my students but I really don't mind if students (much less graduates) call me Sir Leland, Sir Land or simply Leland. After all, being a teacher is just a job and not my identity. So I guess the general rule of thumb is that if you don't know me well, please call me Leland and if you've called me something else in the past, just call me what you've always called me before because the way you call me has some historical significance. |
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Contact me at [email protected] |