Jeena Kim

My name is Jeena, not Gina, not Jenna, not Jina, not Jeana, but Jeena. I have a pretty ordinary name, but somehow, it’s very different. There are tons of Gina’s around the world, but I have yet to meet one who spells her name just like mine. Unlike the other “Gina’s,” my name starts with a “J” and contains 2 “e’s” instead of 1 “i”. When I was younger, and still to this day, people, especially teachers, always mispronounce my name. It happened so many times that I began to accept the fact that no one would ever say or spell it correctly. The moments when my teachers did call my name correctly were oddly satisfying, and it honestly made my day.

People would mispronounce my name so much to the point in which I stopped caring. In high school, I watched a video about how everyone pronounced this one girl’s name wrong. Instead of just letting it go, this girl would continue to correct their mistakes because her mother told her that if people could pronounce names like “Van Gogh, Mozart, Tchaikovsky, etc.” then people could learn to say her name.

After watching that video, I felt a sudden surge of pride for my name. It was during the first few days of school when suddenly, my teacher called Jenna to answer the question. Thinking back to that video I immediately corrected her, but it turned out she was actually calling a girl named Jenna in the class to answer the question. I was so embarrassed and could feel my whole face turn into a tomato.

Although, I completely made a fool of myself, I came to realize the importance of my name and the way it describes who I am. My name used to be an inconvenience to me, but now it represents who I am.

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