What's My Name? LHaliburton!

I've always hated my name. It's one of those things that you are given and don't have much of a choice in the matter.

LaKeshia Lynn Haliburton.

Thanks mom and dad! Did you guys not realize how many syllables were in my name?Didn't you know the rule, when there's a long last name, you give a short first name. When I was younger, there weren't even enough circles on the MEAP test to fill in my whole name. I think part of my name has always been cut off on every class roster I was in.

Now lets analyze the name, beginning with LaKeshia: I went to a lot of schools in the suburbs, where they were not used to seeing the name. I was often called Lake-shea. By second grade, this had begun driving me crazy, so I began capitalizing the K. Thinking that my very smart teachers, would see it as two words La then Keshia. That didn't work.

Can I even begin to state what people think of when they here the name Keshia? Most people think of a Keshia as being black and often ghetto. My favorite expresion is "you don't act like a Keshia". What does that mean? I didn't live up to the ghettoness that you invisioned a Keshia to be?

Then comes my last name: Haliburton. Most people wasn't sure what I was growing up. Was I mixed with a caucasin father? Did my mom re-marry and my new dad adopted me. These were questions I was actually asked as a nine year old. Then after 9-11, all I heard was "are you connected to Halliburton Oil?" Ummm NO! As my grandfather used to say (and I didn't understand at the time) "we can only afford one L.

After years of hating my name, I could now legally change it, but then I would have to get used to a new name, and after being called LaKeshia Haliburton for almost 30 years, I think I've finally grown to accept it.

So now I am changing all of my accounts to LHaliburton. It's my name, and I'm one of a kind!
Find me on Facebook, Twitter, Blogger and more at LHaliburton.

Ignoring My Health

I work at hospital, and spend a lot of time trying to convince people that they need to see their doctors (I'm in PR and Marketing). The crazy thing is, I've been ignoring my own health problems. When I was tired all the time, I assumed it was because of the earlier time change. When my appetite disappeared, I didn't mind cause I thought I would lose weight. When the weight didn't come off, I thought it was stress.

One day as I was casually talking to one of the doctors that work at Detroit Receiving, I told him what had been going on. He encouraged me to get checked out. When I explained my symptoms to my doc, she immediately got my metabolism and thyroid checked. Turns out I have an underactive thyroid. It can cause serious health problems, including all the symptoms that I had.

I just write this as an encouragement to bring up things to your doctor. They can never properly assess you if you don't explain everything that is going on. What I thought were some minor issues, turned out to be a serious health condition that will require monitoring.