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Description
Names are essentially titles, given to us at birth to distinguish us from the masses. But they’re more than that. Too many times than I care to count I’ve seen people use the ‘masks’ metaphor to describe how we act differently around other people, this is all well and good but if we take every side of ourselves and give it a mask that we can switch between whenever necessary what does that leave of us? What’s left under the mask? Are we then just bags of flesh without personality of beliefs? No, I say that we don’t have different ‘masks’ so much as we have different names…

When I hang out with my mates they call me ‘Brendon’ if they have to use my name at all, when I’ve done something my mother doesn’t approve of she calls me ‘Brendon Thomas Miller’, on DevianART I go by ‘4-string’ and on message boards I go by the similar (yet according to the DeviantART servers, different) username ‘4string’. Each one of these is me, 4string, Brendon, 4-string and Brendon Thomas Miller, yet all describe different parts of who I am.

Different names can have the same ‘title’ I frequent two forums under the name ‘4string’ both are me for both post true accounts of my thoughts and/or feeling on whatever happens to be the topic however ‘KontroldKhaos’ is slightly less serious that ‘Thunderground’ and I use the former to let out some steam while the latter holds more serious discussions, the result, two ‘names’ the Thunderground 4string, that talks about music, movies or general topics with several other members of that forum and the KontroldKhaos 4string that generally talks garbage and lets out aggression on fellow board members (it’s ok that’s kind of the point of the boards).

4-string on the other hand is the Deviant Writer that posts a small collection of texts where a few people are going to read them but generally isn’t going to impact a lot of people. It’s probably the least known ‘name’ when it comes to people exposed mainly to my other sides. Generally speaking it’s practically secluded from the rest of me, not because it’s not as good, or not as part of me as my other names but generally because that’s just a part of what that name is. Names don’t have to be a large part, or an obvious part of who we are to be a ‘name’ or an accurate name. 4-string is as much a part of me as Brendon Thomas Miller.

Which brings me back to me ‘real life’ names. Around friends I’m ‘Brendon’ around my mother in a bad mood I’m ‘Brendon Thomas Miller’, in a good mood she shortens that to ‘Brendon’ but as my mother she’ll always see me as ‘Brendon Thomas Miller’, and that name is similar to ‘Brendon’ but is still not a complete part of who I am. The ‘dominant’ name doesn’t account for who you are specifically. No matter how much of you one of your ‘names’ includes it’ll never be who you really are until you also take into account every other aspect covered by every other name.

My overall point is that these ‘names’ are all different parts of who we are, some will always be present around certain people and others will always be hidden to others, this doesn’t mean you’re wearing ‘masks’ you don’t want others to find out about, 4string is of no consequence to the people who call me Brendon, their two separate parts of my life and if someone came along with whom I wanted to share my all my names with then I would show them 4string, 4-string, Brendon, Brendon Thomas Miller and any other name I wanted them to see. They’re not ‘dirty little secrets’ I should hide away, they’re part of who I am as your names are part of who you are, embrace them as a part of you and let no one call you shallow or claim your wearing a mask. You wouldn’t tackle someone in a basketball game, just like I wouldn’t start writing nonsense while hanging out with my mates, they’re all separate sections of who I am, some look down on ‘masks’ but I say names are a natural part of who we are and shouldn’t be sullied, if you truly don’t like surprises or ‘masks’ then take the time to learn all my names and you will know who I am.

Description
Names are essentially titles, given to us at birth to distinguish us from the masses. But they’re more than that. Too many times than I care to count I’ve seen people use the ‘masks’ metaphor to describe how we act differently around other people, this is all well and good but if we take every side of ourselves and give it a mask that we can switch between whenever necessary what does that leave of us? What’s left under the mask? Are we then just bags of flesh without personality of beliefs? No, I say that we don’t have different ‘masks’ so much as we have different names…

When I hang out with my mates they call me ‘Brendon’ if they have to use my name at all, when I’ve done something my mother doesn’t approve of she calls me ‘Brendon Thomas Miller’, on DevianART I go by ‘4-string’ and on message boards I go by the similar (yet according to the DeviantART servers, different) username ‘4string’. Each one of these is me, 4string, Brendon, 4-string and Brendon Thomas Miller, yet all describe different parts of who I am.

Different names can have the same ‘title’ I frequent two forums under the name ‘4string’ both are me for both post true accounts of my thoughts and/or feeling on whatever happens to be the topic however ‘KontroldKhaos’ is slightly less serious that ‘Thunderground’ and I use the former to let out some steam while the latter holds more serious discussions, the result, two ‘names’ the Thunderground 4string, that talks about music, movies or general topics with several other members of that forum and the KontroldKhaos 4string that generally talks garbage and lets out aggression on fellow board members (it’s ok that’s kind of the point of the boards).

4-string on the other hand is the Deviant Writer that posts a small collection of texts where a few people are going to read them but generally isn’t going to impact a lot of people. It’s probably the least known ‘name’ when it comes to people exposed mainly to my other sides. Generally speaking it’s practically secluded from the rest of me, not because it’s not as good, or not as part of me as my other names but generally because that’s just a part of what that name is. Names don’t have to be a large part, or an obvious part of who we are to be a ‘name’ or an accurate name. 4-string is as much a part of me as Brendon Thomas Miller.

Which brings me back to me ‘real life’ names. Around friends I’m ‘Brendon’ around my mother in a bad mood I’m ‘Brendon Thomas Miller’, in a good mood she shortens that to ‘Brendon’ but as my mother she’ll always see me as ‘Brendon Thomas Miller’, and that name is similar to ‘Brendon’ but is still not a complete part of who I am. The ‘dominant’ name doesn’t account for who you are specifically. No matter how much of you one of your ‘names’ includes it’ll never be who you really are until you also take into account every other aspect covered by every other name.

My overall point is that these ‘names’ are all different parts of who we are, some will always be present around certain people and others will always be hidden to others, this doesn’t mean you’re wearing ‘masks’ you don’t want others to find out about, 4string is of no consequence to the people who call me Brendon, their two separate parts of my life and if someone came along with whom I wanted to share my all my names with then I would show them 4string, 4-string, Brendon, Brendon Thomas Miller and any other name I wanted them to see. They’re not ‘dirty little secrets’ I should hide away, they’re part of who I am as your names are part of who you are, embrace them as a part of you and let no one call you shallow or claim your wearing a mask. You wouldn’t tackle someone in a basketball game, just like I wouldn’t start writing nonsense while hanging out with my mates, they’re all separate sections of who I am, some look down on ‘masks’ but I say names are a natural part of who we are and shouldn’t be sullied, if you truly don’t like surprises or ‘masks’ then take the time to learn all my names and you will know who I am.