When I became Padma

It took me many years to shade layers that had been slowing me down.

The first one, was to move away from a culture that I didn't feel I belonged in and moved to California in 1991. This part might be in a different blog post. This last layer of changing my first name had been a long time coming. I remember growing up, then being called Sophie, and not understanding why that name never fit. We are born with so many choices, so why can't we choose our own name, the one constant in our lives, that will identify us to the rest of the world?

I let go of my birth name in 2017. It was if the time has come to let "Sophie" go, no hesitation, no strange feeling, my heart had always been Padma. Now I can fully embrace the one I had been all along. Padma had been waiting in the shadow for too long.  She is out, she is here and she is ready to spread her butterfly wings for the world to see.