Why Teresa Nhi?

teresanhiLeave a comment

As a 1st generation American (meaning my parents immigrated here from Vietnam, and I was born in the states, pls correct me if I’m wrong), I had a very Asian/foreign name. Nhi is what is written on my birth certificate. I don’t even know how to explain to you how to pronounce this, most people just call me ‘knee’, which is close enough.

Nhi was what I was called from the moment I was born, until I was about 4-5 when we were getting ready to go to kindergarten. Someone (I think my aunt), suggested we give me an “English” name since I was starting school. People ask me how I got Teresa from Nhi, but obviously Teresa wasn’t derived from a 3 letter name. It was a mixture of my mom loving Teresa Teng (a very popular Chinese singer in the 90s), and Mother Theresa. I remember us trekking to a library and going into the encyclopedia (yikes, do kids even know what those are?) and they photocopied the article about Mother Theresa so I could learn about my namesake.

I remember not liking the name Nhi. I hated the first day of school at roll call, when the teacher would call off the names, one after another and then I feel the teacher’s hesitation… “nai?… or knee?” I would begrudgingly raise my hand and let them know that I go by Teresa, and you can see the relief on their face while they make a note of it. After a few years of that, I knew when I was coming up and when I feel that pause coming, I just nip it in the bud and tell them it’s me. I told myself that I would legally change my name to Teresa when I was older.

It wasn’t until much later my mom tells me that it was my grandpa who picked my name. She said after I was born, he came into the room and said, “Her name is Nhi” or actually gah-yee in Cantonese. Oh that changed everything. My grandpa passed away in 2008, and I’m overly sentimental. I was upset at my young self for not liking Nhi, because it was a name my grandpa picked out just for me.

Now here I am, embracing it to the fullest, but I’ve lived most of my life as Teresa as well, so I couldn’t just erase that part of me. That’s how I got Teresa Nhi. There are a lot of Teresa’s out there, and Theresa’s. There was even a Theresa with the same last name as me at my middle school! So what makes it me, is what my grandpa picked for me, Teresa Nhi.

♥,
Teresa

 

renew.

teresanhiLeave a comment

Hello Internets,

I’m baaaaaack. Again. There should be a website that lets you type in your name to see how many blogs/websites you’ve started in your lifetime. I’m sure I have enough to count on both hands.

But this time, I’m going to try it with a different approach. I’ve always blogged for other reasons, never for me. I would get discouraged to write because I felt like my content was boring, or my pictures weren’t good enough, or I didn’t feel like it was “original” and then the blog just gets forgotten. Or I would put a lot of time customizing my page to what I want it to before posting, only to just get tired and not post anything at all!

I was recently motivated and inspired by my cousin, Carmen. We used to be big bloggers back in the day (throwback to xanga, livejournal, tumblr, you name it). She linked me to her recent pictures on her blog and it reminded me how much I missed blogging. It was just an outlet and back in high school, I really didn’t care about likes or reblogs. It was just somewhere for me to write out my feelings and reflect on the day, so therapeutic, and great for looking back. Carmen encouraged me to restart up a blog and just approach it with a different mindset, with no expectations, just write.

So here we are, once again.

♥,

Teresa