Jess? Who the heck is Jess?

Alright, so I tried to slip one by you all, but Nate caught it. Nicely done Nate, you get a pat on the back...and maybe a free auto quote?

So here's the story on my name "Jess"...remember, "vote for the best". Didn't really rhyme then, and really doesn't ryhme now, does it? Oh well.

Jess was short for Jessley, my official name. During my school years in Wheaton, I was known as Jess from 2nd grade on, simply because I was too timid to tell the teacher that I would rather have been called "Jason". I still kick myself when I think back...William was Bill, Thomas was Tommy, Oommen was Chris (!), but Jessley was...Jess. This timidity was borne out of the fact (I believe) that I was truly the only Indian kid in Wheaton, at that time. When I graduated from Wheaton North in 1994, there were three Indian kids, and only one was a Patel. This might cause shock and awe to you Niles North and Maine East grads.

This plays a large part in the "masks" I wore during my formative years - I was "Jason" at church and to my close family and friends: I was strong, confident, & had a lot of friends in that circle. At school, I was "Jess", much more timid, quiet and really stayed to myself. The way I made myself more confident at school was by getting involved with school politics and sports (did you know I ran cross country, played basketball and tried out for volleyball and football)? I used my ability to make friends and build relationships to help me run for various offices and that helped me throughout my school years. By the time I got to high school, everyone knew me as "Jess", and I thought it would be too much for me to "change" my name. I worked too hard to have people know me as someone and didn't want to screw it up. When I got to college, I finally decided that I would tell each professor: Even though the class roster says "Jessley", please call me "Jason".

To this day, past friends in high school find me on Facebook or reunion websites and are surprised that my name is Jason...not Jess. Crazy, huh?

Now you know just a little bit more about me...