Write About Self

CAMBA, Meeko Angela R. / 30 January 2016

Meeko, a name I got from a cartoon character in my sisters favorite movie,

Pocahontas. It was a name that almost never failed to catch peoples attention as I
was growing up. Meeko, with an O? Isnt that a boys name? they ask. I usually
just smile in return, but in my head wonder what it was about it that people found
weird. After all, in what rulebook was it said that names ending in O are not for
girls?
The second of three daughters, I was considered the son of the family. I was the
one who preferred baggy blue t-shirts over flowery pink dresses; the one who
collected toy cars instead of Barbie dolls; the one who wore her hair short, or in a
ponytail, rather than neatly combed in place with a bow on top. I spent more time
after school playing basketball with my guy friends, more than I did talking about
how handsome they looked with the girls who were crushing on them. These were
things I did, not for the sake of being different, but simply because they seemed the
most natural to me. And somehow, somewhere along the road, a boy asked me, in
what sounded as a demeaning way, if I was a lesbian.

I was about 16 years-old at the timea sophomore in high school. I laughed as I

tried to hide my embarrassment from the guy I wished would be more than my
friend. It was a question I asked myself once or twice before, that I honestly and
consistently answered no to. Despite being what others considered to be boyish,
I was quite sure of my answer. In the few seconds he looked at me, I realized I was
angry. Who was he to generalize what a girl who liked boys should or should not do?
Why should anyone use a label