The name's been changed...

It's been a year. Actually--it's been a year and three days since my surgery. I'm 110 lbs lighter in weight, and 1000 lbs lighter in outlook. My life has changed in so many wonderful ways, and happiness has been the absolute order of the day, with one noticeable exception.

My first name.

In case you don't know, my name is Anastacia. I've been called Stacy since time began, though, and that was always a-ok with me. In fact, I never gave it much thought. And then one day, maybe about seven years ago, I started realizing that Stacy just didn't fit me so well anymore. Maybe it was ending the relationship with my mother that did it. Who knows. All I'm sure of is that as time passed, Anastacia fit me more and Stacy fit me less.

Two years ago, I started talking with experts about the possibility of using Anastacia in business. "No," they cried, "You can't do that because 'Stacy Brice' is a brand and you'll ruin the brand." They also said I'd lose mondo amounts of web traffic, and risked alienating my customer base, who could think Anastacia was a snooty name, and might suddenly see me as unaccessible.

Lord knows I didn't want that, so I didn't change a thing in business. But I started using Anastacia with new friends. And as they used what I've grown to think of as the name of my heart, I wanted more people to use it with me. But the experts kept playing in my head.

A few weeks ago, I reached out to an entrepreneur--the only person I knew of who had changed her first name, and changed it to something more unique than what was her then current name.

She reminded me of many things, including that there was no way for me to live my truth and live authentically if I continued to straddle the Anastacia/Stacy fence. I hadn't seen it that way--but the moment she mentioned it, I knew she was spot on. AND I knew that that straddling was more the cause of my small unrest than anything else.

So I decided to go on and change it. Everywhere. And to tell everyone who interacts with me in whatever way(s) they interact with me. So now you know. :)

If you're out and about online you may continue to see traces of Stacy Brice from time to time--it's a HUGE job trying to figure out where all the mentions of the name are and to get them changed. But here, and every other major place in my life, I'll be Anastacia in fairly short order.

Thanks for listening :)