"My email? It's c-i-n-d-e-h-a-a" "—yeah, with two a's" "The h is silent. It's pronounced like Cindy with an a at the end" "No, my name isn't Cinde Haa. It's Cindy Li"
Why did I choose a moniker that leads to this conversation every single time? Like most subpar decisions in life, this one traces back to being 14. I had a terribly cringe-worthy email back then (which, unfortunately, a few childhood friends still remember) and was desperately in need of a "professional" one. The problem: Cindy Li is a really common name (like, I'm pretty sure someone in my year and program shares it). Everything I tried was already taken, which meant I had to get creative.
Luckily, I had accumulated a few nicknames:
- "Cindeh" — from my childhood friend Hoyt
- "Cindya" — from my sister
- "cindyaa" — my BridgeBase username, because both "cindy" and "cindya" were taken
So naturally, I mashed them together into cindehaa. I never got around to making something more professional. So cindehaa just... stuck until it became too entwined in my life to change. Now I'm committed. At least I never have to deal with my username being taken again.