Poll of the Day > My name has a bit of history with it.

(+) Yeah! (+)

First it was argonaut....No! not that name.

My real name.

I can date people by what they call me. If you, in real life, call me T.J., I knew you in high school or you knew high school friends of mine(family members and old family friends as well). If you call me Tim, which is in fact my real name, I knew you outside of high school.

From as early on as I can remember, I've been called T.J. by my parents. Just my initials, and it is a common initialized name. So, going to school, that being what I was mostly called, I was just asked to be called that.

Sometime around junior or senior year of high school, I started to feel like I should be recognized by my actual name, because it is also my dad name, and he's a pretty respectable guy in some ways worth modeling yourself after. Temper swings, despite never being physical, kinda sucked as a kid but he was a hard working, sane, good father.

So, if you met me outside of high school you call me Tim. Some exceptions exist. Perhaps, the longest most removed from high school:

my best friend knew a guy from church one year out of high school.
We started hanging out. T.J.
Church guy met a girl, who lived 40 minutes away from us and we started hanging out. T.J.
I met her friend, who I am still good friends with to this day, who lives even further away than the other girl. T.J.

It is kind weird, and not something I think about much, but I dont even notice what I am called any more, really. Not that it matters, I don't have a preference though I do call myself Tim 100% of the time now. It's just, if you call me Tim or T.J. I respond without thinking, though I would be weirded out if a complete stranger called me T.J. because they shouldn't know to do that >_>