Hello, Minnie

I was a student at GEOS for about six months before I was recommended to join another class. That class was supposed to be a higher level group lesson. There were six or seven students in that class. There were a couple of high school students, a couple of office workers, and a couple of housewives. All of them were women, including the teacher.

I introduced myself to these students. When my introduction was finished the teacher asked me to think of a nickname for myself by next week. "What?!... a nickname?!" I thought. The teacher continued, "We call each other by our nicknames in this class." The class was silent as they stared at me. One of the housewives said quietly, "I'm Lucy." "So where is Charlie Brown?" I thought.

Over the next hour of class time I learned the names of these peoples' strange "other lives" There was Elly, Nancy, Julie, and Cathy. "What is this?! Some kind of cheap hostess bar?!" I thought.

Next week I chose the name "Minnie" for myself because I had worn a Minnie Mouse costume to the Halloween party. I felt pretty silly but I didn't want them to pick a name for me. The class started.
"Hello Minnie! How are you?"
"I'm fine, thank you. And you, Lucy?"

Yoko T.