Becoming Alexis - Part Six
The really hard part.
Has it really been over a month since my last post? I apparently burned myself out hard. What I am learning: tasks relating to name changes get more boring and less rewarding the further in time you go.
Why? Well, I have my new driver’s license and passport in hand, my new business license, my updated notary stamp is on its way, new business cards, and new diplomas coming. But I’m still doing work on my name change every day. For example, today, I called American Express, Discover, and Hilton. At this stage, now that I have my updated IDs, each additional task is more annoying than anything. Every single website I have ever used requires an update, and many of them require you to go through customer service, either online or on the phone. And, most annoyingly, several places with which I’ve changed my name have gotten it wrong – either keeping “Alex” or “Lemberg” or some other permutation. Which, in turn, requires going back to that place or making another phone call (and sitting on hold). My point: all of this is extremely time-consuming.
A big part of my name change process has involved simultaneously coming to understand my autism. And a big part of that process has been listening to my body and my brain more frequently and not just proceeding in my default state of being. This has meant slowing down, on several occasions, as I’ve just been doing too much for too long. But I also know myself, and that I will lose motivation if I don’t maintain my inertia, as I don’t want to be “that person” who updates their name in the most important places and then gives up. I’m committed to seeing all of this through, but I am just so tired from it all.
But it’s hard. Especially now that I’ve reached the stage where it is non-stop dealing with retail customer service, my inertia is dropping. There’s still a lot of major items that I haven’t dealt with yet: notifying all my clients, my bank, health insurance, airlines, my passport from Germany, and lots more. Hopefully, over the next few weeks, I can finalize all these main items. But I’m also diligently working on the less important stuff—retail memberships, magazines, organizations I’ve donated money to—so that one day, hopefully soon, I can live in a world where Alexis Levy is my name 100% of the time.
I definitely plan to start working on detailed how-to guides for a lot of the trickier documents and items, but I just haven’t had the time yet. More to come…