What's your name? Ohhh you're one of them

The first day of High School is always exciting. I remember mine well, the excitement I felt walking into the building while wondering how my life would change. I wanted, like most teens, to do well, to be liked and to be ME!

As my history teacher was reading the names he paused when he looked up over his glasses, "Thatcher eh? You're one of them! Welcome, Thatcher." My gut twisted and I was annoyed. I was no longer Ali; I was one of them, measured by my siblings who went before me and for the next three years, a handful of my teachers never uttered my name calling me Thatcher instead. 

Don't get me wrong, I love my family, but I wanted my identity. By the time I got to Davis High, I was the tenth Thatcher in ten years to grace those hallways.

I looked for something none of the "Thatcher's" had done and went for it. Luckily for me, it was a positive thing. It is only watching my kids do I see how much I wanted to be me as a teen.

Now my youngest is starting High School. I see her face cringe when she hears people talk about her and her sister, "Your two girls are so much alike." She, like all teens, wants to make her mark and be herself.  

I hug her and say, "I get you sweetie; it happened to me." She like all teens doesn't always believe me. Let your teen be unique and make their mark! Think back to your teen years...didn't you want to?

—Allison Ochs Social Worker M.S.W. , Coach, Expat, Mother of three, Wife