My Nickname

My first nickname was freshman year my coaches decided that Peyton was too hard of a name to yell when cheering for me so my coach said “can we call you Drex from now on?”

I said, “of course.” I never really loved my name and I kinda liked when people would use nicknames instead; I thought it was cool and fun when they were used. For the rest of the season whenever I would get on the blocks I always heard “let’s go Drex”.

 Another nickname that I had been called was “P”. For the longest time adults had always called me “P”. It stemmed from texting because my mom would never type out my full name.  It started to stick and my parents, family friends, and even coaches started just to use the first letter of my name.

 It was my Sophomore year and I was starting at a new school. I knew a few people but not many. I made a group of friends at swim who would become some of the best friends I had ever had. “I am going to call you Pdrex,” Brynn said one day. Everyone around immediately agreed with her and it became the only thing that I was known as by the whole team. Every single time I would get up on the blocks before my race, was walking in the hallways at school, or hanging with my friends the only thing that they ever called me was Pdrex. I thought it was interesting that two nicknames that I had before I met these people came together to make one; especially since none of them had ever heard the other ones.

At the end of sophomore year, I moved away to a new swim team but yet my nickname stuck with me. After starting swim season I showed up to practice and my friend said to me “we should call you Pdrex.” I explained how I had been called that before; I thought it was weird and random that someone would suggest calling me that again. It’s a pretty simple nickname because it’s just the first letter of my first name and part of my last but I still thought it was interesting. Again this name became known throughout the team and most people call me this now. I told my old friends about this and they claimed the title of coming up with it. This nickname has become something more than just something people call me; it became something that my friends came up with and made me feel a part of a team that I was new to, twice.