My name change was a cope

Remember that one time I got everyone to call me by the name of a planet?

For years, as I watched the growing frequency of name changes, I told myself I would never change my name. I thought changing your name was a red flag, a public admission that you have major baggage. As I watched people close to me change their names, I worried about them. I expressed judgmental concern in private—“You can’t just run from yourself like …