Marriage Weirdness

Background Information: John and I are co-leaders of a campus group Integrating Non-Violence into Theological Education: Peace and Justice Working Group.

John and I are getting together the beginning of the year email with events and the like for INViTE-PJWG. He asked me to proof the email and one correction/change I had was my name. I still haven’t sent in my Social Security stuff, but I will – soon, so I don’t have to pay. Around Luther I need to have my name changed on a Social Security card before the registrar will make the update. So, for the time being I’m still Christina Wernicke. In my classes when professors read the roster they call Christina Wernicke and I respond, nope, I’m Chris Matson (it has a nice ring to it, not to mention the amazing guy who shares it). It sounds like a whole different person. The whole marriage thing is an amazing transformation and realization. It’s an inquiry and recognition of who am ‘I’ and who are ‘we’. What makes each important and distinct without compromising the other? This is a balance I think will take a lifetime, but that’s okay and even exciting – I don’t have to figure it out tomorrow (unlike Hebrew nouns).

The other weird thing is life with and without bridal jewelry. With it I get adult status, a few years added to my age and a weird, undeserved respect that the title Mrs. brings. Without it I get carded and am treated like a young college student. I’ve only been without it for 24+ hours now, but it’s strange the way I am viewed by society.