Daily writing prompt
What's the story behind your nickname?
This seemed a nothingburger of a prompt at first, but when you look closer, nicknames provide feedback about the impressions one makes on others that wouldn't necessarily be shared another way.
Nicknames usually come up within work contexts for me, outside of simply shortening Stephanie to Steph. I prefer Stephanie, although love to hear Steph when there's affection in the greeting, like a co-worker who always sounds surprised when I come in, "Steeeeeph!" 🙂
My grandfather and mother used to call me Steffie.
The nicknames floating around currently, I've mentioned in other prompts: Bean of Light (cheeky kids), and Summer Breeze (cheeky co-workers). Earlier in life there was Queenie, also Flower Child, by the same group of co-workers, which I always thought odd. Queenie comes from shyness that can present itself as aloofness at first, which goes away when someone gets to know me. 🙂
Twice at work fairly recently, people said they thought I was too nice at first, and didn't quite trust that. It saddened me, because I remember feeling kind of wowed that everyone was so interesting, that the connecting gap was just the nature of the job. Almost everyone there is on their way somewhere else, after all. When I left private schools for public schools in my teens, shyness and possibly exaggerated manners due to my great-grandmother's influence, were also read this way, so it's a little of a sore spot, as I was surprised to see it come up again.
Obviously no one feels that now, or they couldn't be so honest about it. 🙂
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