Many people have "different" names. I just so happen to be one of them. My mother and father picked out the name. Then my mom and grandmother collaborated, brainstormed, and came up with the name Chassedi; changing the spelling from the traditional form, Chastity. Now, my mom says that she got my name off of an episode of "The Twilight Zone" (doo doo doo doo, doo doo doo doo, doooo -that's how the music goes in words haha). I'm not sure if she's telling the truth or not, but how would I know? I wasn't even born yet. So as most children do, I took her word for it.

My aunts name is Christi, spelled with an 'i' instead of a 'y at the end'; this is where my grandma came up with the idea for my name ending with an 'i'. As for the 'e' and the 'd'...don't ask...I know nothing.

"We just wanted to be different," mom told me.

Well you want different, you got it, Momma! I can't even begin to count the numerous times my name has been spelled and pronounced wrong. Or have had to add it to the spell check on the computer because seeing that red line underneathe my name got really annoying really fast.

It almost became second nature the first day of school, to wait for my name to be called on the roll sheet from my new teacher in class to hear this:

"HERE!" a new class mate would say who's name came before mine.

"Ch-Ch...Chastity Cooper?" the teach would say. (FYI, Chastity was the most common mistake for my name).

"My name is Chass-EDI." I would chime in.

Sometimes I would just cut them off at the "Ch-Ch..." part and just tell them my name. You'd think after all the strenuous training a teacher has to do with grammar and spelling that they might remember this, "Sound your words out". Yes, sound them out they did not, for if they did MAYBE one of them could've gotten it right. My name has no 'T' in it, fools. I'm not saying all my teachers said my name wrong, but for the most part, the majority of them did.

One of my most memorable name that I was referred to as was in middle school. Mr. Ketterman was passing around a sheet for summer school that had the students name and class they signed up for. The purpose of this was to make sure the student's name and class they chose to take was right, and correct any errors made. I had signed up for girls physical fitness program; as I read down the list, I wasn't on the list. To my dismay, I looked over on the boys physical fitness list, there it was, but it was spelled "Chase Cooper". Last time I checked, 'Chase' was a boys name...and how do you get 'Chase' out of 'Chassedi'? I could see how if you took out three letters, but come on! So, I pointed out to Mr. Ketterman the error and spent the rest of the day being called "Chase" by my friends. Thanks guys.

Another time my name was spelled wrong was in our high school news paper. Someone had submitted a quote from me, and I know I wrote my name down on the paper the quote was on so there would be no confusion. Not to mention it was a HIGH SCHOOL newspaper, its not like they couldn't have looked it up in a year book or on a computer if I hadn't had wrote my name down for them. When the paper came out, YET AGAIN, my name was spelled wrong. This time it was spelled "Chasedee". Chasedee? Wow... There's one for the record! That was probably the funniest spelling I'd even read the paper yet, my friends were coming up to me and saying "Did you see this?!" and they would show me the paper. My friend Danielle started calls me "Chasedee" or just "Chase" for short, still to this day! Almost 3 years after we've graduated, she still calls me that!

When I was growing up I always wished I was one of the girls that had a name like "Jessica" or "Amanda". This was until I realized my name stirs up the soup, if you know what I mean. People will always remember my name because it is different, and that's what's so awesome about my name. May I add it also goes along with my quirky personality. So to all the children with odd names, don't be sad, just remember all the times your friends poke fun at your name, and no matter how many times you have to correct it for people, almost everyone will remember you! So thank you Mom, Dad and Grandma for giving me such a crazy "mispelled" name

Peace.