That was a wig.
TL;DR - I have no business being named Kevin, and yet here we are.
I’m told that when my parents went to choose my name, they originally landed on Adrian. Days later, my mom decided I needed a whiter name to better fit in. Thus my brown ass ended up with the first name, Kevin; Adrian got demoted to middle name status. However, when we’d visit Mexico, my dad would immediately start calling me Adrian once we landed.
This story, once funny, weighs heavier these days. When I married my husband, I thought of legally switching the order of the two names. On occasion I think of ditching both altogether and just adopting my drag queen name, Mira. But for now I own my full name. It tells a story. It's on my skateboard. And I’m well rehearsed in saying, “My name is Kevin Adrian Lopez. And I’m a writer.”
to work