Hello, my name is Sandra.

I've never been comfortable with being called Sandy. I've always thought of her as a cute, perky blonde girl, and I am none of those things. Although I have no problem with other people called Sandy. I don't hate the name itself, I just hate it for me. And no one calls me Sandy. No one except for the occasional complete stranger, who's just been introduced to me as Sandra, but assumes they can call me Sandy instead. This leaves me in the uncomfortable position of either putting up with something I hate or having to correct them, which then leaves everyone feeling a little awkward and me sounding boring and formal. I don't know if it's that some people just shorten everyone's name, or if they think that's what my friends must call me so they automatically jump from having just met me to being BFFs. I wouldn't even mind if they asked if they could call me Sandy, but they rarely do. And if I do attempt to politely correct them, which I only really do if I know I'm going to see them again, they often seem vaguely offended by it. I don't understand that, either. Surely I'm the one who gets to choose what I want to be called? Of course when this comes up in conversation and I mention that I don't like it, there's always that one person who thinks it's funny to say 'Oh, don't you like to be called Sandy, Sandy? Why not Sandy? What's wrong Sandy? Don't you like that Sandy?' Hilarious.

I'm not even sure why it bothers me so much. Maybe if I was Sandy as a child it would have stuck, but my cousins had a dog called Sandy so growing up I always thought of it as a dogs name. They actually had the dog before I was born, but my parents are Italian and I don't think it ever occurred to them that the two names were in any way connected, or at least I'd like to think they didn't intentionally name me after a dog! Then there is the Grease factor. A lifetime of people singing 'Oh Sandy baaay-beeeeeee' at me is enough to make me never, ever want to hear the song or the name again. So really, I blame John Travolta.