The 4th Quarter

The final stretch. I'm old now. I'm a senior and I'm all warn out. It's been a long game. This was the toughest portfolio of all. 5 pieces! This year's portfolio was pretty much identical to the one I did last year. I did have the same teacher both years, so that makes sense, right? Last year's was only 3 pieces, however. This piece is about my name. I chose this piece because I think this piece shows just how much my writing has grown. I think this piece is really fun to read. Before my pieces were solid, but none of them really ever stood out to me as being "fun to read." Here it is:

Eric Robert Decker

You know those cool sounding names you see that famous people have? Tom Cruise, Kiefer Sutherland, Meryl Steep! These people having these names… It’s almost like they were meant to be famous! Okay yeah, we all know that the three of these guys at some point in their lives weren’t famous. At first, they meant as much to the world as Joe the Plumber did, but then they all had their big breakthroughs and now anyone who even knows even a little bit about pop culture would be able to recognize these names. Well for me, my name right now, Eric Robert Decker, barely means anything to even this high school.
            

My name means something to me though. I love my name. I wouldn’t want it any other way. It’s not too long, not too short, it fits just right. I think even Goldilocks would agree and hey, she’s famous, right? Over the years, I have asked my parents numerous times why they named me they way they did, probably the same way Uma Thurman asked her parents how she got her name. So apparently, my middle name actually was almost my first name. Weird, right? Reminds me of that kind of weird sensation I got when I saw Kiefer Sutherland in Stand by Me for the first time after watching three straight seasons of 24. But really, imagine my face, my personality, anything about me, with the first name Robert slapped across my chest. My parents eventually did make up their minds and Robert became my middle name. My parents steered clear of Robert because my parents didn’t like that the name Robert had so many nicknames; Robby, Rob, Bob, Bobby, etc. If I had been named Robert, Robby would have been my top choice of nickname to go by. RAH-BE. Robert was ultimately put into my name in honor of my maternal grandfather, Robert Louis May. He was somewhat famous, so I guess I’ve got that going for me!

So then there’s my first name; not quite up to the awesomeness of Kiefer or Uma, but I’d say it’s pretty solid. I’m not sure why my parents chose the name Eric, but I think they mentioned once or twice that they just liked the simplicity of it. I remember when I was little I told my Mom once or twice that Eric should be spelled with AIR in the front, instead of ER. I’m not sure how she reacted to that, but I think it’s funny that I took the time to think of that. I wonder what Willow Smith is thinking about her name right now? The Fresh Prince of Narcissism, anyone?

I’m not sure when it first happened or why it happened, but however it happened, calling me by my last name, rather than my first name has stuck. I wonder if anyone called Tom Cruise by his real last name… “Hey, Mapother! What’s going on, man?”

Nah… doesn’t work for me either. I’m a senior in high school and it has gotten to the point now where almost all of the guys (and a handful of girls) at Lake Forest High School call me by my last name. My volleyball coaches here at the high school even call me Decker! Decker has caught on so much that even one of my friend’s mom calls me Decker. Even her boyfriend calls me Decker and he even introduced me to one of his friends as Decker. Apparently, Decker, DEHK-ERR, is catchy.

The greatest thing that happens with my name is when people can’t decide whether or not to call me Eric or Decker. I wonder if Vince Vaughn ever had any trouble with this. It happens probably about once a week or so. The person desires to get my attention, but instead of calling me Eric or Decker, they have a little brain-fart and both names come out at once and they call me Deric, or Derek; however you want to spell it. They all realize their blunder the second after it comes out of their mouths and I laugh almost every single time. Maybe this is what happened to Meryl Streep. After all, her real name is Mary Louise Streep. Maybe she got sick and tired of people mixing up them up, so she just decided to combine her first and middle names. But really, how hard is it to pronounce the name Eric Decker correctly? It’s only four syllables, it’s a relatively common name, c’mon people! Take a look at these names of some of my friends: Tasos Stavropoulos, Lukasz Sobieraj, or even Reyna Zascirinskis. Try pronouncing those correctly! I’m decent friends with all three of these people and I don’t even know how to!

Overall, names are so unique and are ever-evolving; just take a look at those names I listed above or even some of the famous people I mentioned. The great thing about names is that if you were completely unaware that anyone was famous in this world, each and every name you came across would have no greater significance than the name before it. It’s when you finally get to know someone, or in the case with famous people, read about someone, do their names finally start to stick out to you. The only thing my name means to this world right now is the fact that Eric Decker is a rookie wide receiver for the Denver Broncos in the NFL. I want to be an engineer. Engineers don’t really get the attention from the media that football players get, but maybe someday it’ll get to the point where the world mixes the football playing Eric Decker up with the world-saving environmental engineer that I want to be. I’d still be pretty honored even if someone were to mistake me for being a football player. I play volleyball right now, about the exact opposite sport when you compare it to football, but it could happen. Leonardo DiCaprio sure thought people would mistake him for being way more important than he actually was in Catch Me If You Can. I’m by no means a con-artist, but it’s still not too late to change career paths, if that’s what you want to call it.  It has potential though. We’ll see.

What an ending, huh? Much more exciting than any other part of the game. Sports fans live for the fourth quarter. This was my favorite piece that I wrote probably all throughout high school. I had a lot of fun with this piece and I also had to work very hard with this piece too. I did a lot of internet browsing trying to find any information on any famous person with a cool name that I could find. I have to admit, this piece was pretty lame up until about the last week or so before the portfolio was due. I mentioned some of my favorite movies in this piece as well, so that was a lot of fun. Overall, it pays off to work hard, and have some fun along the way.