Why 'Hobby'?

Before I was born, my soon-to-be aunts and uncle decided to take matters into their own hands and name me. 

I was going to be Calvin Andy Hobbs, they said. And for short, they would call me "Calvin An' Hobbs". Such a good name if you like comics. 

But then I was born. I turned out to be a girl who my parents named "Sonya Janine". And my would-be nickname was just a funny story. 

I never had many nicknames growing up. I guess you can't really make much out of a five letter name. My dad called me "Son-Son" long enough that it stuck with some of my older cousins, and they still call me that to this day. But I never grew up knowing what it was like to have a real name AND a nickname. 

Then I went to Faith Mission Home.

Apparently, it's an unspoken rule that working there means receiving a new name. Or multiple ones, for that matter. For the first time in my entire life, I learned to respond to many different titles. 

Eric was a student at FMH. While I was there, he transitioned to a different care facility. Until then, he spent his days keeping the Home tidy, "doing a good job for Jesus", and trying to remember my name. I had to remind him for many weeks. And then, it finally clicked. 

"Good morning, L-Lasagna!" he exclaimed one morning. 

From that day forward, I learned to respond to "Lasagna". Eric visited the bakeshop every day with his childcare worker, and I began to look forward to his visits and special greeting. Unfortunately though, I was always taken off guard when one of the girls announced that we were eating lasagna for lunch. It happened multiple times, and I always received a fair amount of hash for it. Eric terminated at FMH, and so did my nickname. 

But I needn't have worried because Miss Jennifer already had a replacement. 

Jen is also a student at Faith Mission Home and was one of the girls I cared for. She too struggles with names. She found that "Hobbs" is apparently easier to say than "Sonya" even though they have the same number of letters and syllables. "Mornin', Hobbs!" She exclaimed every morning. 

She has a idiosyncrasy of adding suffixes to the end of words for emphasis. While eating a meal, she will often look at the cook and seriously exclaim, "You are a good cook-er". (The mental picture blesses me every time!) So after several weeks, "Hobbs" morphed into "Hobby". 

And I've been Hobby every since! 

Other variations have been used as well. I once responded to "Curly Hobby" which was an honor I never had again, but made my day. "Why, Curly?" I asked Jen. "Cuz you ... cuz you cute," she grinned mischievously.

Sandra, on occasion, would exclaim "Sonya Hobby Lobby!" if she saw me make a mistake or laugh loudly or do something scandalous. (I realized how unconventional these names are while in Walmart one day. A shopper within hearing distance made mention to someone over the telephone about going to Hobby Lobby. I automatically looked up to respond, only to realize I wasn't being acknowledged. What a feeling! 😅)

I never dreamed that I would permanently become Hobby, but I think I'm honored. It's kinda sweet ... especially when it comes from Jen. I miss her frequent "Hobby Girl" sentences. Once, during a craft class, I spilled a container of beads everywhere (as is my unfortunately regular habit). Jen's OCD wouldn't let her focus on her beads. She had to come running over and help me pick them all up. In pretense, she sighed with exasperation and said, "Hobby, Hobby. You are so careless!" Coming from her childish mind, it blessed my heart a lot. And we laughed together while we picked up the beads. 

So, why Hobby?

That's why. 

It's a special name given by a special person. I think it's one nickname I'll keep.