Latest / Stuff Mom Never Told You / Happy Hour #129: Names and Identity
Transcript
- 0:05Speaker 1: Hey, this is Annie and Samantha, and welcome to Stephane
- 0:07Speaker 1: Never Told your production of iHeart Radio.
- 0:18Speaker 2: And welcome to another edition of Happy Hour where I
- 0:20Speaker 2: keep Annie on edge because she has no idea what
- 0:23Speaker 2: we're talking about, no clue whatsoever. But before we start,
- 0:27Speaker 2: as per usual, if you are drinking or doing any
- 0:31Speaker 2: of the things, be responsible, check yourself, know your limits,
- 0:36Speaker 2: be healthy, and be kind to others as per usual.
- 0:40Speaker 2: Right we are not necessarily being sponsored by any of
- 0:43Speaker 2: the things that we talk about currently. Any of that
- 0:46Speaker 2: can change, who knows, but right now as we record it,
- 0:51Speaker 2: that is not a thing we have sponsors, not necessarily
- 0:54Speaker 2: the ones we're talking about. So before we start, Annie,
- 0:57Speaker 2: what just have been on.
- 0:59Speaker 1: The old and it's been a minute?
- 1:01Speaker 2: Yeah, I think next time we need to play a
- 1:03Speaker 2: game where I can try to guess what you're drinking
- 1:05Speaker 2: that day.
- 1:09Speaker 1: Yes, yes, Uh, that would be an embarrassingly easy game
- 1:15Speaker 1: unless I try to do something else.
- 1:18Speaker 3: Yeah, well, you make your own things.
- 1:21Speaker 1: Yeah, today's a very stressful day. I'll say that we
- 1:26Speaker 1: did fun interview things, which is great, but they were early,
- 1:29Speaker 1: and so I couldn't see you even say up really early,
- 1:31Speaker 1: and I got to talk to my mom tonight, which
- 1:33Speaker 1: is fine, but like I'm stressed. It's what I'm saying. Yeah,
- 1:39Speaker 1: So for the G.
- 1:41Speaker 2: And T, G and D time, Yes, I have also
- 1:46Speaker 2: been stressed. But because of that, I get sleepy. So
- 1:49Speaker 2: once again, I'm sticking to my non alcoholic beverages and
- 1:53Speaker 2: I am drinking a sparkling pineapple beverage, nice juice beverage,
- 1:58Speaker 2: because I'm still on my pineapple kick.
- 1:59Speaker 3: I don't know, no, y'all. It's good, It's good, is good?
- 2:08Speaker 1: You know.
- 2:08Speaker 2: I was trying to figure out exactly what I wanted
- 2:10Speaker 2: to talk about because there are several things that have
- 2:14Speaker 2: been popping up in my world of social media, but
- 2:17Speaker 2: also like what I watched entertainment as you know, if
- 2:20Speaker 2: you've been listening to any of the shows recently. I'm
- 2:23Speaker 2: really gotten into K dramas and watching K dramas and
- 2:27Speaker 2: then figure out my identity. There's also this conversation, like
- 2:31Speaker 2: I've been ruminating on an idea for a second podcast.
- 2:35Speaker 2: You know all about this, and I have very specifics
- 2:38Speaker 2: and it is related to K dramas, the K wave
- 2:40Speaker 2: in general, which we've talked about, We've talked about on this,
- 2:44Speaker 2: We've done episodes on it here, and then I went
- 2:47Speaker 2: back and forth about my own identity. So there's this
- 2:50Speaker 2: whole level this is all about me Annie, and we're
- 2:53Speaker 2: processing some thoughts on my happy hour. But like having
- 2:58Speaker 2: my identity and changing things in like my I guess
- 3:03Speaker 2: professional name specifically, not to get too much out, my
- 3:08Speaker 2: brother recently got remarried and his wife's name is now
- 3:12Speaker 2: exactly my name except for.
- 3:14Speaker 3: The middle name.
- 3:15Speaker 2: So I have this moment of like huh, like, oh
- 3:19Speaker 2: my god, what the is this? But like I saw
- 3:21Speaker 2: it somewhere with her name, and I was like, what
- 3:24Speaker 2: the hell is this? And don't get me wrong, I
- 3:26Speaker 2: don't know her very well, so I'm sure she's a
- 3:28Speaker 2: very lovely person. She's she has children, and she's a
- 3:31Speaker 2: loving mother, all those things, so nothing to her specifically,
- 3:35Speaker 2: but seeing this woman who was white as well that
- 3:38Speaker 2: I'm like, yeah, that fits her a little too well
- 3:40Speaker 2: versus me. And so having a little bit of identity
- 3:43Speaker 2: in crisis because not only is there someone in my
- 3:46Speaker 2: immediate family with my exact same name, and now because
- 3:50Speaker 2: she is probably closer to my family in that respect,
- 3:53Speaker 2: I'm gonna be living in forever like confusion for this
- 3:57Speaker 2: now on top of that, when you do the will
- 4:00Speaker 2: research all these things, and I'm sure, like finding people
- 4:03Speaker 2: is not a big deal, but there's this level of like, okay,
- 4:06Speaker 2: but we are closely associated, so it wouldn't be too
- 4:10Speaker 2: far fetched that she could be mixed up as me
- 4:12Speaker 2: type of level and then not. I don't know anything
- 4:15Speaker 2: about her political stance, but she's married to my brother,
- 4:18Speaker 2: who is very staunchly conservative, a big fan of Candice Owens.
- 4:23Speaker 2: And I hope you understand what that means when I
- 4:25Speaker 2: say that that, I'm like, oh, okay, I don't I
- 4:29Speaker 2: don't know how I feel about this. There are so
- 4:31Speaker 2: many things I already have identity issuesual, and there's this
- 4:35Speaker 2: whole level of this that's like an added plus. And
- 4:37Speaker 2: I'm like, don't get me wrong, my brother can marry
- 4:41Speaker 2: whomever he wants. I just came like, how how did
- 4:45Speaker 2: you find.
- 4:48Speaker 3: Which?
- 4:48Speaker 2: By the way, also, she has the same middle name
- 4:51Speaker 2: as my mother, so that even like even close more
- 4:56Speaker 2: closely to that, and I'm like, what the what the
- 4:58Speaker 2: what the hell? Like, there's so many levels, and because
- 5:01Speaker 2: of that, also, I am trying to find my identity,
- 5:04Speaker 2: really trying to understand who I am and my Korean
- 5:08Speaker 2: last name is Lee, and so I've had this back
- 5:11Speaker 2: and forth like maybe I want to change my name
- 5:13Speaker 2: back to my Korean name. My partner was like, your
- 5:15Speaker 2: family's gonna be very upset, which could be very true.
- 5:18Speaker 2: With this, I would have a lot of confusion. My
- 5:20Speaker 2: entire group of friends would be like what, like there's
- 5:24Speaker 2: so much level. But so my other thoughts like maybe
- 5:26Speaker 2: I can just change it to Samantha Lee. I don't
- 5:30Speaker 2: really say my name. We don't say our last name
- 5:33Speaker 2: for the show, but it's on all of our biographies
- 5:36Speaker 2: and autobiographies and anything. Obviously it's too late on the
- 5:38Speaker 2: book any of that, but like I'm wondering, like maybe,
- 5:42Speaker 2: as like the professional level, I should switch it. So
- 5:45Speaker 2: I'm having this level of identity crisis at forty sething
- 5:48Speaker 2: years old. Do you think this is a part of
- 5:50Speaker 2: my midlife crisis right now?
- 5:53Speaker 1: I think that shoehorning it into mid life crisis is
- 5:58Speaker 1: perhaps not what is happening here, because that is more
- 6:03Speaker 1: than a midlife crisis, is what I will say, Because
- 6:09Speaker 1: that is like, honestly, I have a friend who always
- 6:13Speaker 1: teases me, and she's like, it sounds like you're in
- 6:16Speaker 1: a sitcom. Right now. It kind of sounds like you're
- 6:18Speaker 1: in a finding my identity sitcom right now where somebody family,
- 6:28Speaker 1: So I wouldn't put it in that same level. And
- 6:32Speaker 1: I think that's difficult because it's true, like there's a
- 6:36Speaker 1: part of me that wants to tell you like, yeah,
- 6:38Speaker 1: just dude, do it, change it. But I know there's
- 6:41Speaker 1: like that's easy for me to say, like there's so
- 6:43Speaker 1: many other things going on other than like I don't
- 6:48Speaker 1: want to upset my family. What is my identity? Like
- 6:51Speaker 1: it's just a multi layered thing. So no, I think
- 6:54Speaker 1: this is way more than a mid life crisis.
- 6:58Speaker 3: I think it's a little better.
- 6:59Speaker 2: And I will say like for the longest time, I
- 7:13Speaker 2: have been considering the name, like I have been going
- 7:17Speaker 2: back and forth, like do I want to go back
- 7:19Speaker 2: to my Korean name so Young like that? So like
- 7:22Speaker 2: I think I've said it before, but my family name
- 7:24Speaker 2: is Lee or E and then my first name is
- 7:28Speaker 2: so Young, which apparently means desire, and then like profits
- 7:33Speaker 2: or something like that. I don't know, like essentially that you
- 7:35Speaker 2: can get money, wealth or something. And I'm like, yeah, okay,
- 7:38Speaker 2: because I didn't whatever who gave me that and then
- 7:41Speaker 2: left me okay, but yeah, there's so many levels to
- 7:44Speaker 2: this that I'm like, Okay, I don't think I would
- 7:45Speaker 2: change my name back to the Korean name because that's
- 7:48Speaker 2: that's almost too overwhelming, but having that, like because my
- 7:54Speaker 2: middle name is Lee, so like it be sam my
- 7:56Speaker 2: name is Samantha Lee McVay, don't steal my identity, but
- 8:00Speaker 2: like changing it just to being Samantha Lead, I don't
- 8:02Speaker 2: think would be a big stretch, although we've kind of
- 8:04Speaker 2: been in this industry for three years now, so it'd
- 8:06Speaker 2: be confusing ish and then going back to like the
- 8:09Speaker 2: new if I were to do this other podcast that
- 8:11Speaker 2: I've talked about or trying to develop something around it,
- 8:14Speaker 2: whatever it may look like if it's not a podcast,
- 8:16Speaker 2: you know, it would make sense. But it would also
- 8:19Speaker 2: not make this because it'd be the disconnect from stuff
- 8:21Speaker 2: mom never told you to whatever else is new. That's
- 8:25Speaker 2: a whole different legality. And also I was looking it up,
- 8:28Speaker 2: it's like, how do you do this in the state
- 8:29Speaker 2: of Georgia. I don't know if anybody else. If you
- 8:31Speaker 2: want to legally change a name, you have to publish
- 8:34Speaker 2: your name in a newspaper for several months just in
- 8:40Speaker 2: case someone is looking for you, so you can't just
- 8:42Speaker 2: run away and hide.
- 8:45Speaker 3: I was like, wait what.
- 8:46Speaker 2: I found this out a long time ago when working
- 8:50Speaker 2: with social services, and I'm like, huh, that's huh okay.
- 8:57Speaker 2: I go like just seeing like a whole other mess
- 9:00Speaker 2: and then just like changing it on papers. So I
- 9:02Speaker 2: wouldn't do all that. So, like the professional level, I
- 9:05Speaker 2: don't think it needs to be that level, but yeah,
- 9:07Speaker 2: there's this whole level like a crisis I'm having because
- 9:11Speaker 2: you're correct, it feels like in that level, I'm being
- 9:15Speaker 2: replaced with the better, wider version of me, and not
- 9:19Speaker 2: necessarily Again, nothing to do with my family. Really, it
- 9:21Speaker 2: really has nothing to do with her. It's just this
- 9:24Speaker 2: level of like I have always been the odd one out,
- 9:28Speaker 2: whether it's my opinions, whether it's my beliefs, whether it's
- 9:31Speaker 2: my actual looks and physical appearance.
- 9:35Speaker 3: That's been a thing.
- 9:36Speaker 2: And then here comes this person who is kind I'm sure,
- 9:40Speaker 2: very kind, very sweet.
- 9:42Speaker 3: Again, nothing to her, This has really nothing to do
- 9:44Speaker 3: with her, and I'm sorry to her if she thinks that, because.
- 9:48Speaker 2: This is not but it has everything to do with
- 9:50Speaker 2: me with like, oh, they've been waiting for this version.
- 9:54Speaker 2: Not only that but she's quiet and seemingly more similar
- 9:58Speaker 2: to their beliefs, or at least would not cause a
- 10:01Speaker 2: wave about anything because she is a young white woman,
- 10:07Speaker 2: has already kind of established a family, wants to be
- 10:09Speaker 2: a part of this big family, and my mom and
- 10:11Speaker 2: dad are probably the most welcoming parents there could be,
- 10:14Speaker 2: even with their polarizing beliefs. They don't act that out
- 10:19Speaker 2: in real life, which we've talked about before. So like,
- 10:23Speaker 2: I'm sure she's excited to be a part of this
- 10:25Speaker 2: and they're excited to accept.
- 10:26Speaker 3: Her and like all these things.
- 10:28Speaker 2: But there's this level of like identity crisis that I'm
- 10:31Speaker 2: having that I'm like, all right, what do I do
- 10:33Speaker 2: with this? And because we are not close, like my
- 10:36Speaker 2: parents don't know anything about my work. The one time
- 10:40Speaker 2: we try to talk about it, we got in an
- 10:41Speaker 2: awful fight, and so therefore I have learned my lesson
- 10:45Speaker 2: and never talk about it again. Like they're just like,
- 10:48Speaker 2: how are you? You're doing your job?
- 10:49Speaker 3: You like it great, Like that's the end of the conversation.
- 10:54Speaker 3: You know.
- 10:54Speaker 2: I had a little previous Monday media about the movie
- 10:59Speaker 2: that I hate that they would just ne were so
- 11:00Speaker 2: excited about, like so many things that just doesn't fall
- 11:04Speaker 2: in line, but it does make me feel still like
- 11:07Speaker 2: a one more, like one more brick in the wall
- 11:10Speaker 2: that has come between us. And it has nothing to
- 11:13Speaker 2: do with like what they've actually done, or it has
- 11:16Speaker 2: nothing to do with what she is or who she is,
- 11:18Speaker 2: like it has nothing to do that, but it just
- 11:19Speaker 2: it's almost like that realistic Uh, when you get that
- 11:23Speaker 2: actual example where it just hands itself to you, You're like, yeah,
- 11:27Speaker 2: there it is.
- 11:29Speaker 3: That's too literal.
- 11:35Speaker 2: So there's so many things and again like this all
- 11:39Speaker 2: kind of goes back to like trying to figure myself out.
- 11:42Speaker 2: I'm trying to find my space, even though maybe I
- 11:46Speaker 2: am creating such a myth in this idea to begin with.
- 11:51Speaker 2: And I say that because obviously I have space and
- 11:55Speaker 2: I have identity, and obviously because like people can describe
- 11:59Speaker 2: me and people can say this is you, this is
- 12:01Speaker 2: what you are, this is what you like or things
- 12:03Speaker 2: like that are a part of my identity. So maybe
- 12:05Speaker 2: I'm putting a mythological aspect to this to make it
- 12:09Speaker 2: more dramatic. I don't know, But there's so many like
- 12:12Speaker 2: moments of like hmm, what is out of feeling? What
- 12:16Speaker 2: is it out of professionalism and what is again the reality?
- 12:21Speaker 1: Right? Right? And I think through my time knowing you,
- 12:29Speaker 1: I have seen you struggle with this and I've heard
- 12:34Speaker 1: stories you've told around It's an odd space to be
- 12:40Speaker 1: when someone sees your name, which I don't know, but
- 12:45Speaker 1: you know, and they assume like your nationality, they assume
- 12:50Speaker 1: your and kind of like having to deal with that,
- 12:54Speaker 1: having to confront that every time you give someone your name.
- 12:59Speaker 1: I can only imagine it's like something that feels very
- 13:03Speaker 1: simple to a lot of us is not simple for you.
- 13:09Speaker 2: Right, And yeah, absolutely, Like I've told many stories of
- 13:13Speaker 2: the fact that people are shocked when they saved me.
- 13:15Speaker 2: Also part of that is my accent that has thrown
- 13:19Speaker 2: a lot of people off to that not what I expected,
- 13:23Speaker 2: and like, yeah, I know, but yeah, it seems to
- 13:25Speaker 2: be like a constant reminder anyway, so that there's that
- 13:32Speaker 2: level of like between the two of us, who would
- 13:36Speaker 2: you pick as that actual person.
- 13:41Speaker 3: And it wouldn't be me.
- 13:53Speaker 1: We did that whole episode like what's in a name?
- 13:55Speaker 1: I think a lot of us take for granted the
- 13:59Speaker 1: kind of giving your name and it not being like really,
- 14:09Speaker 1: so it is like reminders that people view you as
- 14:15Speaker 1: outsider or like other just based on on your name,
- 14:22Speaker 1: which is something you use in every day and you're right,
- 14:24Speaker 1: like in our job, that is a whole thing. That's
- 14:28Speaker 1: a whole thing to consider, is well, people know me,
- 14:32Speaker 1: my this name, this is what I've built my in
- 14:37Speaker 1: this case like podcast or book around If I change it,
- 14:42Speaker 1: then I could have a financial loss, Like there muld
- 14:44Speaker 1: be a financial ding for that, you know.
- 14:48Speaker 2: And part of this is like later in life in
- 14:51Speaker 2: discoveries of what I what I want to be seen as,
- 14:54Speaker 2: I guess not necessarily like a reputation and not necessarily image,
- 14:58Speaker 2: but yeah, like but who I am and the importance
- 15:01Speaker 2: of a name in general when we talk about things
- 15:04Speaker 2: and what it represents. And you know, I love my family,
- 15:08Speaker 2: but I would not have ties to the McVeigh ancestors
- 15:12Speaker 2: like they've talked about the ancestors of mcveigh's and where
- 15:15Speaker 2: they came from. That had no it felt very foreign
- 15:18Speaker 2: to me. Like literally, I'm like, this is really like
- 15:23Speaker 2: you know what I mean, like pertaining to the family
- 15:26Speaker 2: and what they grow and learn about their history and
- 15:27Speaker 2: learn about themselves. That's not me learning about myself. That's
- 15:31Speaker 2: about learning about them and something that's disconnected from me,
- 15:34Speaker 2: so even to that level, like I have loyalties into
- 15:36Speaker 2: my current family, yes, but to that like the ancestral idea,
- 15:41Speaker 2: like you know, former hosts Caroline loves loves her ancestry
- 15:47Speaker 2: treat like she will go and dig I think she
- 15:50Speaker 2: stopped recently, but one of her hobbies were to do
- 15:53Speaker 2: all these things and it always kind of fascinated me
- 15:55Speaker 2: because that was not something I've ever been interested in
- 15:59Speaker 2: because I'm so disconnected from that.
- 16:01Speaker 1: Right right, And I think that makes sense. I think
- 16:06Speaker 1: there's a way to it. There's a weight to because
- 16:14Speaker 1: you've you grew up in this kind of white community,
- 16:17Speaker 1: in this family, and when they're talking about their history,
- 16:22Speaker 1: it's not right gonna align with what you're feeling, and
- 16:28Speaker 1: so that that totally makes sense, so that you're sort
- 16:32Speaker 1: of like, Okay, well that's not really resonating.
- 16:35Speaker 3: Here, not like that's your people.
- 16:39Speaker 2: That's yeah, I don't know, Like there's so many things
- 16:45Speaker 2: I'm pondering, Like there's so many things in my mind
- 16:48Speaker 2: that are space and then I eventually, I think this
- 16:50Speaker 2: is going to be a Monday many because I want
- 16:52Speaker 2: to talk about a recent episode of a reality series
- 16:56Speaker 2: that's going around that's viral, okay, because I have questions,
- 16:59Speaker 2: but but like stuff like this has been really just
- 17:02Speaker 2: taking over my head that I'm like, what is happening?
- 17:05Speaker 2: Like what is these It's not really related, but like
- 17:09Speaker 2: for some reason, these weighing things that make no real
- 17:12Speaker 2: sense can be a conversation. And then you're like, Okay,
- 17:16Speaker 2: how do I know this down into because it's the
- 17:20Speaker 2: beginning form of like this, this is where I wanted
- 17:22Speaker 2: to be, but we're still here, so how do I
- 17:25Speaker 2: get it to there?
- 17:26Speaker 3: And I'm saying this is like very vaguely I know.
- 17:28Speaker 3: And that's the same thing for my name.
- 17:30Speaker 2: It's like where this is where I was, and I
- 17:33Speaker 2: was given this name when I came to the US
- 17:35Speaker 2: to accomate to the society. A lot of Koreans just
- 17:39Speaker 2: get an English name to make it easier, a lot
- 17:42Speaker 2: of Asian people in general.
- 17:43Speaker 3: For other people.
- 17:45Speaker 2: I had an artist who he kept his Asian name,
- 17:50Speaker 2: and when I talked to him introduced myself. He's like, oh,
- 17:52Speaker 2: did you change your name? And I had to explain, no,
- 17:54Speaker 2: this is he was like, oh yeah. My mom was
- 17:56Speaker 2: very adamant that I never anglicized my name because it
- 18:00Speaker 2: would take away from our family, you.
- 18:03Speaker 3: Know, like, oh, that makes a lot of sense.
- 18:04Speaker 2: There's a little bit of shame, but I'm like, I
- 18:06Speaker 2: have no aspect about my family gave me up, but
- 18:09Speaker 2: thinking about like should I change it back?
- 18:11Speaker 3: What does that look like?
- 18:13Speaker 2: And then the fact that it's still happened today and no,
- 18:15Speaker 2: nobody really has that conversation except for the fact that
- 18:19Speaker 2: I was given that name without a choice. It's the
- 18:23Speaker 2: same thing with like, of course anybody who was born
- 18:25Speaker 2: at any point, but I do have dual identity.
- 18:27Speaker 3: It seems.
- 18:28Speaker 1: Yeah, it's a difficult, a difficult conversation, and I know
- 18:34Speaker 1: it's weighed heavily on you.
- 18:37Speaker 2: So so you're gonna have to start calling me Samantha
- 18:39Speaker 2: Ley just kidding.
- 18:42Speaker 3: Testing it out with you.
- 18:44Speaker 1: You should. I had. I have one of my good
- 18:48Speaker 1: friends when I was in high school. She told me
- 18:51Speaker 1: her Cantonese name, and it felt like she was just like,
- 18:57Speaker 1: I want you to call me this down. I was like, Okay, yeah,
- 19:00Speaker 1: I will do it. That's your name. You tell me,
- 19:04Speaker 1: I'm happy to do it. Thank you. Just let me know,
- 19:11Speaker 1: just let me know. But yeah, cheers Samantha. On this
- 19:17Speaker 1: rainy day that we're having yes, yes, and as always, listeners,
- 19:23Speaker 1: please let us know if you have any thoughts about this.
- 19:27Speaker 1: You can email us at Steph Media Mom Steph at
- 19:29Speaker 1: iHeartMedia dot com. You can find us on Twitter at
- 19:34Speaker 1: mom stuff Podcast. You can also find us on TikTok
- 19:39Speaker 1: and Instagram at Stuffman Never Told You. We have a
- 19:43Speaker 1: tea public store and we have a book that you
- 19:45Speaker 1: can pre order. It is coming out imminently. By imminently,
- 19:49Speaker 1: I mean August twenty ninth, twenty twenty three, you can
- 19:53Speaker 1: pre order it at stuffishtredbooks dot com. Thanks as always
- 19:57Speaker 1: two our super producer Christina, our executive Maya, and our
- 20:01Speaker 1: controvertor Joey.
- 20:02Speaker 3: Thank you and thanks to you for.
- 20:04Speaker 1: Listening Stuff I Never Told You, the production of iHeart Radio.
- 20:06Speaker 1: For more podcasts on my heart Radio, you can check
- 20:08Speaker 1: out the heart Radio app Apple Podcast, where you listen
- 20:10Speaker 1: to your favorite shows