Story Behind My Username

Now that I'm done introducing myself in the hive community, it is now time to hunt challenges. One of the challenges that caught my attention is the 30-day Blogging Challenge of @tegoshei. Scanning through her list, I decided to modify some of her topics depending on my mood.

My username has no fancy backstory. One sentence is enough to share with you about my username. Or, I could expound it a bit into a paragraph, but still, the blog is too short. So, I'll be adding some of the usernames I used on my social media account.

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H I V E

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I interchanged my first name and second name, from Caryl Keen to Keen Caryl. When I add a comma after Keen, it can be interpreted as Caryl is sharp, or Caryl is eager. I must say Keen fits as my name. After that, I anagrammed it.

I was reading An Abundance of Katherines by John Green when I tried to anagram my name on the first mention of anagramming. So from Keen Caryl, I anagram it to Knee Lyrac and combined it to Kneelyrac. I know it is not a legit anagram. Nevertheless, I still call my username anagrammed from my real name. Self-proclamation at its finest.

Also, it sounds like "Kneel, Lilac." More like a Game of Thrones vibe, "Kneel before your Queen, Lilac." or "Bend the knee, or die.". But this has nothing to do with my username though. Just sharing.

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I N S T A G R A M

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One of my nicknames is Waling. Waling is a flower of the orchid family here in the Philippines. But, I was not named after the 'beautiful' flower. It was from my grandmother's name on my father's side. As my mother told me, my grandmother and I have the same personality.

Then, my classmates learned that I easily get mad when called Waling so they teased me always. Later on, I accepted the fact that I will no longer be Caryl to them. Whenever they introduced me to their friends, it will be "This is Waling.". Caryl is now long forgotten.

Before, when my mother is mad at me, she called me Waling. She knew that I don't like to be called Waling. It's not that I don't like my grandmother or her name. I haven't met her as far as I could remember. I just don't like to be called by other names besides Caryl and Keen-keen. Now that I'm okay with it, thanks to my classmates for the nonstop tease that strengthens my immunity, my mother can no longer tease me too.

So, she is now joining the team Waling sometimes, Ling. I remembered her singing, "Ling-a-ling-a-ling ding-dong. Ling-a-ling-a-ling ding-dong." That's where my username in IG came from. From Ling to Lingaling to Lingaleeng.

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T W I T T E R

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The same reason with Instagram, it came from my nickname Waling. Some of my guy friends call me Waling with the pronunciation of weeleeng. I just thought it befits to a fancy twitter username, so I used Weeleeng. I tried to change my username to kneelyrac, but the name is already taken.

Before, I hated being called Waling. But now, people around me keep on calling me that. This applies only to my close friends. I really feel awkward when acquaintances called me that. Although, I prefer more to be called Keen or Carl.

So that's the reason behind my username.

_{Disclaimer: Images are edited from Canva.}

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