Some of you may be shocked to know that Hole was not an easy last name to grow up with. Sometimes I wished that I had a five syllable last name that nobody even tried to pronounce rather than "Hole."

I used to hate introducing myself to people. They'd say, "No really, what's your last name?" It's Hole. Sometimes people like to put a little Spanish flare in there and say Holé because just plain Hole seems too tragic to actually be a last name. I'm constantly the butt of a lot of jokes, (literally people call me butt), and the worst part is some people think that they're the first person to ever come up with that one (you definitely aren't).

However, my mortifying last name has given me a few good stories over the years.

When I was in seventh or eight grade, everyone at my school was super amped about ordering sweatshirts, sweatpants, T-shirts etc. for the sports teams that they were on. I played field hockey and lacrosse, so there was a lot of gross, brightly colored shirts with questionable font because that's what you think is cool in middle school. One of the teams I was on wanted to get sweatshirts with our names across the back of them, naturally, I laughed at the idea of just having "HOLE" printed across the back of an article of clothing. Then my annoying middle school self thought it would be hilarious if I wrote "Hole" across the back of some sweatpants (pause for laughter). So, I did it and thought I was really funny, cool and rebellious for doing so, none of which were accurate in this case.

I should explain quickly that my school had a uniform and when we had dress down days, there was also a dress code to keep us wily middle schoolers in line. On one of these dress down days, I decided to wear these sweatpants and halfway through the day, our Dean of Students asked me to change because they were inappropriate. Instead of just changing into something else, I became very upset and reacted like this authority figure had just insulted my religion. I responded with: "Why? If my last name was Jones or Smith you wouldn't make me take them off, I can't help what my last name is." I think she gave up purely just because she didn't have time to argue with me about something so trivial. This was the first and last moment I ever did anything remotely badass.

As I mentioned, I played lacrosse in middle and high school. So, during games you sub people in and out by calling their name onto the field. Well, being that my first name is Claire and there are about three million people in the world that share this name you need to CLAIREify who you're talking to (LOL). During one of our games, my coach was yelling across the field so I could sub out. When she yelled "Claire" the other Claire on my team turned her head and thought she was addressing her. My coach then goes, "No, not you, Hole! Hole!" Then, a bunch of the players on the opposing team started looking around at the ground very confused and afraid they were going to trip over an actual hole in the ground.

Over the years, I have heard the same few last name jokes more times than I care to count. These jokes include:

1. What if your first name started with an A that would be so funny

2. Claire Hole stepped in a hole, or pointing at a Hole and asking if that is my long lost cousin

3. Any references to the Hobbit

4. Any references to the movie "Holes" (no, it's not about me.).

5. Any other very obvious inappropriate thing you could say with hole behind it.

Let's sprinkle a little bit of creativity into our lives people.

Another thing that I've always feared with my last name was directly related to the major that I chose. I am terrified to walk into my classroom on my first day of being a real life adult and teaching a classroom full of high schoolers and having to say "Hello, my name is Miss Hole." Or worse, writing "Ms. Hole" on a whiteboard.

Something similar happened in my field observation at the beginning of this semester. I am observing in a classroom of high school seniors, and my cooperating teacher introduced me as Ms. Hole. They all giggled and looked at their friends. Because these kids are only two years younger than I am, I told them that they could call me Claire because it's less formal (also because I don't want them giggling every time they address me) but they still insist on calling me Ms. Hole.

Yes it's been a long a rough road growing up with a name like this; however, I've grown to really love it. I used to have anxiety about first introductions, professors taking attendance on the first day of class and many other things because I was afraid someone would make a joke. However, because people have been making jokes about it my entire life, it made me develop a sense of humor. I've found that it's so much better just to smile and laugh it off rather than fixate on something that I can't change. I love my last name and all the jokes that come with it, no matter how repetitive.

I've decided that when I walk into my classroom on my first day of my real life job, I'm going to boldly write my name on the board, and say "My name is Ms. Hole and if you can come up with a joke I haven't heard, I'll give you extra credit."