My Pretty Short Name
When I was young I lived upon my mother’s milk as I couldn’t eat grass and on my father’s shoulder as I couldn’t walk. Until the day that I began to walk, the name Ena is everywhere in my ears, so I started to realized that my name is Ena. As soon as I was old enough to understand things I started to know my full name, Ena Im. My name, Ena Im is a pretty short name that has no meaning in both Khmer and English. After watching, seeing, noticing, and deserving how good Ena is by her action in the Filipino movie called The Promise, my parents started to like Ena so much that they wanted their daughter to have the same character like her, so her name has chosen to be my name.
Now I have my name, but the feeling that I want to change is everywhere in mind when I go to school hearing other student’s names. I felt like my name is too short and has no meaning while others have. Ena Im is too short for me, I wanted another name like Mony Sereyroth, a name that has a beautiful meaning, peaceful and beautiful sunflowers. Even though I had a feeling that I don’t like my name, but I also thought of something positive about my name. If I think about it positively, I would say “it doesn’t matter whether it is short or long, and meaningful or meaningless, the only thing that matters is whether I am a good person or not.” But still, it has no meaning.
On January 12th, 2019 is the day that I realized the meaning of my name. Ena was my parent’s favorite character’s name and now it is mine. Ena was a child of God just like me who was born as a child of God. She lived in a poor family, but she tried hard in her studying until she became a successful businesswoman. She went through a lot of challenges before becoming a successful businesswoman and having an infinite love that no one could break them apart. The love between her and Angelo would never end even though Angelo’s family doesn’t like a poor person like Ena. She loved Angelo by her heart and not by seeing Angelo as a rich man. The way that she tried to share everything that she has to other people on the island, make my parents like her more and more. Her sweetness, faithful, ambitious and compassionate convince and persuade my parents to name me, Ena Im.
I would like to baptize myself again so that I can have positive thinking about my name. The quote that says “Don’t judge the book by its cover” now come to me. I always remind my friends about this quote when they forgot it, but now it is my turn to remember this quote and let my friend remind me back because I don’t want to judge other things specially my name ever again. I would never forget my parents advises about Ena experiences and behavior. The road to success of my life will be open for me as long as I take Ena’s behaviors as the model.