What's your name again?

“Hi, how are you?” (I'm still not used to the whole “how are you?” and “what's up?” custom in America.)

“I'm good. What's your name?”

“(insert random name + place of origin).”

“ Nice to meet you, I'm Koen from the Netherlands.”

“The Netherlands? That's so cool! What's your name again?”

“Koen.”

“Please say it again.”

“Koen.”

“How do you spell that?”

“K-O-E-N, Koen.”

“Coooooon (in an American accent).”

I've had this conversation a dozen times in the past few weeks. It's one of the great things about going to Centre—meeting new people. But apparently my name is a little bit tricky for Americans and after 10 of these conversations I started using a different approach: just call me whatever you want; as long as I'm responding it's alright.

So, people have come up with a variety of interesting names for me. I've heard Mike, Bradley, and some others. But the most widely used one came from fellow MCLer Victoria (and I'm giving her too much credit right now): Bobby.

Yes, you've read that correctly, it's Bobby—a real American name and I'm proud of it. Although most of time I don't respond to it, it's becoming my alter-ego at Centre. And that's what college life is also about—discover yourself (maybe as Bobby) and be open for different opinions and views.

“What's your name again?”