By Any Other Name

Izzy.
It's a nickname that has haunted me since 4th grade.
Someone decided it was funny to call me Izzy, because I somehow reminded them of Izzy's pizza buffet and they would call me that so they could sing parodied versions of the commercial diddy to attempt making fun of me. There were some parodies that were better than others "Izzy's green poop..." being one of them. But I learned to let it slide like hot cheese on fresh pizza.

While still in grade school I introduced myself as Isabel and politely gave people the option of calling me Izzy [it was better than being called Elizabeth, or Isabella]. But towards the end of my high school years I began to realize that I disdained the sound of the letter z. Not to mention it was ugly to write out... cursive or print. Subsequently I began to loathe the nickname I had so graciously allowed everyone to call me the last 8 years of my life*.

Then college came.
I decided I would make a new beginning for myself. I never once told anyone to call me Izzy. The nickname just naturally came for my professors [Prof Rob!!! I miss him], friends and classmates alike.

I gave up the quest to get rid of it. If people call me Izzy I just go to a happy place in my mind where terrible nicknames are put to death by guillotine and never heard of again. I've taught some of my closer friends to call me Is, or Isa which are nicknames that I find more pleasant to my auditory mechanisms.

There is only one place that the nickname has not dare follow me. My work.
My boss so graciously has caught on to calling me Is, in less formal conversations.

All this to say. I like my boss.
Why do I like him?
Many reasons.

But today I like him because he calls me Is.

* During the 8 years I discovered that the Olympic mascot was named Izzy, and there was some 80's rocker called Izzy and a little boy called Izzy short for Isaiah. All which were negatives to me