My name is Dragana Djuric. Drah-gah-nah Jew-reach. For those of you that know me and know how to pronounce it, it's easy to say. For others, it is quite the challenge and I understand that completely. It is very difficult for most people to say and I never hold it against someone if they are not able to pronounce it .

I grew up absolutely loving my name. Sure, my sister named me and I was always very proud of that, but I simply felt like my name fit me perfectly. I always felt special when I told people my name. When I was little, I never had a nickname that people called me. It was always just Dragana. I never cared that some people could not pronounce it correctly. Knowing that someone is trying their best to do it means the world to me.

Things started to change when I got older and people were not as nice. Once I started high school and was driving, I had a nickname: DD (my initials). It was easier to tell someone an order was for DD, instead of having to spell out Dragana five times. At first, I didn't think much of it. I was trying to be nice to people and not put a lot of attention on myself. There have been several times when someone asked for my name and were completely shocked that it was real. There have been only two reactions to my name: "Wow, that's so cool and beautiful!" and "Are you being serious? What is that?"

It wasn't until college that I noticed how much of my identity I was losing. My first semester, a professor asked for name and laughed when I told her. Then she said that she wasn't going to even try to say it. I was so insulted. I didn't know what to say. This really is my name and I know it isn't something you hear every day, but it's real and it's mine. I spent the rest of the class sitting there in silence, not understanding how someone couldn't at least try to say it. For the rest of the semester, after asking several times for a change, people called me DD.

I'm very proud of who I am and the country my family comes from, so I was upset at myself for letting this happen. For so long, I tried to change my identity to make people more comfortable around me.....but now, I'm done.

This past semester, I demanded that my professors call me by my real name, because it is my true identity. I realized that I was at fault for letting this happen and it would not happen again. If someone you know/meet has a unique name, please---at least try to say it the best you can. It will make their day, I guarantee it!

My name is Dragana Djuric. Drah-gah-nah Jew-reach.