In October of 2009 I wrote a blog post expressing an idea I had of returning to my maiden name after my eventual divorce. At the time I had hemmed and hawed a bit about it, but then felt sure that was what I wanted to do, and I’ve felt sure all this time. And now I have it!
My divorce was finally final (it was supposed to have been final several times since last summer, but there were snafus along the way, mostly clerical errors) last Tuesday. I didn’t know this until I called the courthouse on Friday to find out how things were coming along, and it was then I received the good news that everything was final at last.
Relieved, I sat for a moment taking it in, then made a phone call and then informed my now-ex-husband that we were now officially divorced. Then I went back to my work. But as I sat there working a slow feeling of pleasure began to build, and the sense of freedom and the knowledge that I was truly myself again, my own person with my own given name, was making me happier than even I thought it would.
It’s not that I think divorce per se is a cause for celebration and rejoicing; it seldom is, I feel. But that quiet satisfaction (and yes, a little inner rejoicing) that something that needed to be taken care of was now completed, was over, at long last, was very gratifying indeed.
As soon as I could I set about changing my name around the web, but it’ll take some time to change it where it counts, for official business, so to speak. No matter; I have it now, and that’s all I wanted. Me. Myself. I. Older, but made new again, starting over, and happy to be doing it. Life is good!
