Purpose

        This is an article I wrote for Shaking Brains, a wonderful company that I love being a team member with!  I hope you like it and you can view it on their website (which I highly recommend; they have some great stuff on there) if you click here.  It will be posted on that website on Monday, December 7, 2015.  (If you're reading this after that date, it's already there.)  Enjoy!

Hey, guys! I’m so happy to be writing for you!  My name is Patty Morford.

I know, right? You’re probably thinking, “‘Patty’? Since when is that a name?”  Trust me, I’ve been called Hamburger or Peppermint (even Cow) countless times.  And you know what? For about a year when I was eight and insecure, I tried to change my name.  I was tired of being teased about my weird name.  I wanted to be called Patricia, instead (that’s my full first name).  That one was still a little odd, and I would have tried my middle name (Evelyn is pretty epic, right?), but by that time I had learned something.

I learned that it didn’t really matter what my name was.  It didn’t matter what anyone thought about my name either.  There was a reason for my name, and people’s words couldn’t change its purpose.  It meant something to me, and I wasn’t about to let myself feel embarrassed about someone’s opinion.

To change the subject slightly: my grandmother is a wonderful person.  She grew up in the home of two former navy personnel who were professionally employed in the medical field.  She was the oldest of three children, the youngest being 12 years younger.  She was so much older than her siblings, and I can’t say that her growing-up years were the kind you would ask for.  She married a military man, this time from the air force.  My grandma’s life has had many difficulties, which definitely built her character.  She could have been negatively affected by her experiences, but she chose to use them to make her better.  She is the strongest, kindest person I know, and I greatly admire and look up to her.  Her name is Patty.

That’s why I’m proud of my name.  My parents named me after the woman who quickly became my hero, and that has such a meaning to me.  I would not wish to bear any other title.  This name pushes me to live up to the honor she built upon it.  I want to be the kind of person that would make her proud to share her name with.  For me, my name is who I am.  It gives me a purpose and a direction to my life.

I’m not saying that everyone’s name means something that deep.  Your parents may have named you after a book or movie character, or thought that your name sounded cool.  But there was still a reason for your name; and apart from that and more importantly, there is a reason for you.

You are not an accident.  You are not a mistake.  You have a purpose. You have a mission.  You can be great. You are meant to be great.

You may have felt that you don’t matter.  That you want to change yourself or even get rid of yourself.  You might feel like being different is a bad thing, and you’re afraid to be yourself.  Well, I’m here to tell you this: forget about it.  Stop thinking that.  You DO matter.  You are the way you’re meant to be.  Becoming better isn’t change; it’s being more like your true self.  Everyone was made individually.  Mankind didn’t originate in a mass production of an identical item; you were meant to be different.  That’s what will make you successful.

Embrace your differences.  Your little oddities and quirks are who you are.  It’s those little things that take you to other places.  You don’t share and interest with someone? That’s okay.  Do your own thing.  If everyone was amazing at the same thing, no one would be.  There wouldn’t been a need for talent if talent was all the same.

Somewhere inside you is a genius.  A path and a purpose.  You.

And you matter more than you will ever know.