The Awesome and Over All Better Ashley

Ashley, that is the name my parents knew that they always wanted to name their daughter. The only problem with that was the fact that their first born was a boy. It took years for them to finally admit to us about initially being disappointed when they were given this shocking news and I of course took it upon my self to remind my older brother Patrick that I was "wanted" and therefore the "favorite" child everyday since then. Although there was another problem that occurred with this lovely name that my parents soon came to realize while signing me up for nursery school and it was that Ashley had been a very popular name for my generation. I then also came to this realization and thought it would be a great idea to just ditch the name entirely and tell everyone to call me by my new name, Rosie. Eventually after all the name tags I had stuck onto my shirt and the corrections I went through I became aware that I was stuck with Ashley. This name was a part of me that I could no longer just get rid of so I then sought out to make sure I made it unique to myself.

In the process of making this name unique I followed one of my passions, horseback riding. At the barn I made a very close friend who I work with everyday I am there, and can you guess what her name is? Ashley! As we both got older and eventually became instructors who give the younger kids lessons and during the summer counselors at the camp. We were then referred to by the campers as "Ashley A" and "Ashley B" even though I tried to convince the campers to refer to me as "The Awesome and over all better Ashley," they never caught on.

Over the years I learned that I can't make my name more unique literally, but I can by just being who I am. (Cheesy I know) But who I am is more important than the words I write down on my paper or the fact that I have to add numbers to a username when I try to use "ashleyaylward"and its already been taken.