Changing Names

When I first got married I was still in the Navy. I was known by my maiden name. I didn't want to go through the hassle of changing my name and having to buy new uniforms. So I decided to not change my name and therefore kept my maiden name. When I got out of the navy I kept putting off changing my name because I didn't to go to the social security office to do all the paperwork. I was known by his last name but  officially I still had the name I was born with.

I had decided to go to a community college and applied for financial aid. I had used his last name on the application and  it was rejected because the Social Security number did not align with the name. Shoot, now I had to change my name. I was contemplating what I wanted to change it to. My mother had not given a middle name so I could do what my sister did and take my maiden name as my middle name. Or I could hyphen or I just take his last name.

 I went to the the Social Security Office, I didn't want him to influence me so I went alone. I filled out the most of the paperwork and then walked up to window, I started to speak to the attendant my dilemma, how I felt I was losing myself in some way or I could take this as a new beginning with a new identity. She looked at me with no emotion on her face and then said "if the application is not filled please go to the back of the line". I panicked, I had already been there for about an hour and didn't want to spend more time there. I quickly wrote down my new last name with no middle name.