So, I though I'd take a moment to share with those not in the know why exactly this is "musings-of-jeb."
So, given name is Jeremiah. Noble name. Prophetic name. Means "God exalts," or "God will exalt." A rather apt name, taking my personality type and that of my namesake. Also my confirmation name, as at the time I didn't have a great devotion to any particular saint.
Obvious shortenings:
- Jeremy: Kill it with fire. I know some really great guys with that name, but that is not my name.
- Jerry: Unless you're a Carlson, kill it with fire. There is one family who is allowed to call me "Jerry." It works for them. It DOES NOT work for anyone else.
- Jer: Well, pretty obvious, whatever.
- Miah: This was my common family name. Sometimes extended to "Miah-mooga." Why am I telling you people that...?
Not so obvious nickname and the point of this post: Jebediah/Jeb.
As many of you know, I was homeschooled K-12, though I went to the public school for band and vocal from 5th grade on. My freshman year, being a freshman, I was of course picked on by seniors, as that is what seniors and freshman do. Specifically, in an attempt to irk me, a few of the seniors started calling me "Jebediah," as of course, since that's not actually my name, it would annoy me or something.
As Robert Jordan says, that which you cannot change, you must accept.
This same year, our band took Alfred Reed's Russian Christmas Music (Part 1 | Part 2) to band contest. It has a wicked awesome string bass part (my favorite part starts at about 6:55 in part 1, with the melody in the woodwinds, and a running string bass line underneath, it still gives me chills), which our band director let me play. That's right, as a freshman, having experience only on the guitar and bass guitar, I got to learn string bass, the part, and take it to contest. Win.
So, for a good chunk of the year, I got to go over by the trombones and play string bass.
I don't care if you're just a freshman, string bass is cool.
The lead trombone was a senior, and one who didn't think I was dirt. She actually thought that my playing the string bass was pretty cool. That meant the trombones thought I was a cool cat, and the appellation "Jebediah" became my mark of coolness.
From there, I just really dug the name, and so I introduced it to the mighty ISUCFVMB as an optional shortening, and from thence it stuck.
Fun fact, Jebediah I have seen translated as "Beloved of Yahweh," and "Beloved Friend." Also win.
