What's in a Name?

Why must we change our last names when we get hitched? I feel a little disrespected at having to do so. I used to hate my last name it being Bush and all, but I've come to appreciate it, make it my own. Of course I used to deal with joking and teasing, as it being a synonym for a vagina, but it has made me who I am today, a stronger person, able to cope with teasing and bullying. Due to being teased, I feel I am more empathetic. Therefore, having a last name that made it very easy to be bullied, has made me a better person.

I brought up this subject to my fiance the other day and I told him he should just change his last name, and he just laughed at me like it was such a funny idea. Well I think it's a funny, absurd idea to have to change my last name. Why should I have to? When the idea of marriage first originated, why didn't people just combine last names? Isn't changing our last names sort of disrespectful to our ancestors? If we change our last names, don't we just forget where we came from?

Of course I could just hyphenate my last name, it could be Bush-Sparks, but please, Bush on it's own is a little hard to cope with, I wouldn't and will not do that to my children. I think we should just combine last names. My last name could be Barks, or Spush. I don't mind either of those. I just find it hard having to give up something that is as second nature to me as my fingers. Why should women have to make the change, but men get to sit pretty and just enjoy the show?

I am proud of my last name, of course I'm no relation to the politicians, I wouldn't have any right to be proud then would I? But once my sisters and I get married, there won't be any Bush's in our family left. We our the last of our kind. We will become extinct just like Mr. T Rex or the Dodo birds. I've lived this long with it, and I will be sad to see it go. I'll always feel like a Bush. I don't think that will ever change. I guess it's just time to grow up and face the facts. As we get older we have to do silly things like change our names for the sake of love, and other important things. I just don't want to grow up. Just call me Peter Pan-Bush or Push. -Hailey