Who?

Went through Shanghai airport with a few hiccups but I’ve made it to Australia! Once I landed my Arcadia coordinator quickly found me and brought me to the group.

I also realized something worth mentioning soon. I’m introducing myself as Jade to everyone I meet here. I really don’t mind being called Lucy since clearly that’s my name, but I will push more to go by Jade here. This past year has been a lot of identity formation and your name is a big part of your identity, and since this is my only opportunity without reminding everyone to call me by something else, I’m taking it as somewhat of an experiment here in Australia. I’m leaving my facebook name as Lucy Jiang.

Jade is my chinese ‘first’ name, in 江璐. Partly I want to be more connected to my chinese name than just the sound – Lucy has ‘lu.’ I want more of my heritage and culture to show in myself, westernized as I am, and it’s a slight change that seems unrelated but it means a bit more to me. Jade is also a slightly more gender neutral name. Gender is a big part of one’s identity – and the idea of gender and how one presents themselves has always been on my mind growing up as a tomboy in a Chinese family.

I wonder if this will impact my view of myself. I wonder if it will feel different, feel better? I’m still more used to introducing myself as Lucy, but we’ll see. For now here I am, Jade ready for Australiaaaa 🙂