Sometimes, a name is a very powerful thing. Some people have a name they can try to live up to. Some people’s names mean hope. Love. Prosperity. Courage. Heroic. Funny.

My name is Dante, and it means “enduring”.

What does enduring mean? Well, readers of this blog know I consult Merriam-Webster for my definitions so here we go. Enduring means: lasting, durable.

When you consider the name of the blog, Dante’s Optimism, it could also be seen as “Enduring Optimism”. Now, this could be interpreted in a couple of ways:

• You endure the optimism. You are enduring optimism
• Your optimism is enduring. The optimism endures

Well, of course, I’m talking about the second thing. Ideally, my optimism is lasting. It’s durable.

Only recently (like, in the past couple of weeks) have I just noticed how my name ties into this blog’s name. Really, tack my name to anything and it’s the same result. I didn’t even name the blog to be like that, but it just makes it all that much richer.

It’s only recently that I’ve tried to live up to my name. I want to endure. I want to be durable. I want to be lasting. Through life, we all need that, right? I want to be able to survive my situation. As you know, 2016 was the worst year of my life. Yet, things haven’t really gotten better.

Still, I have to endure. I have to be Dante, in more ways than one.

Funny how things work out.

So, do I have enduring optimism? Am I what I am named? For me, I’m going to fight even harder to live up to my name. I want to be the best representative of Dante ever. You can too. I want my optimism to endure forever. A cool nickname for me is Durable Dante. Or Dante the Durable. That’s like a superpower! That’s so cool!

Anyway, that puts a new meaning to Dante’s Optimism. As I reflect on this blog’s birth, it’s nice to know I still can watch it grow right before my eyes. Sometimes you don’t need a new logo or type of post. Just sit back and think about the blog.

I always do that. I pick words and phrases after research. Maybe that’s the writer in me looking for the right word. I don’t know. I do know that this wonderful name for this blog was 26 years in the making. That’s pretty awesome.

I encourage you to look up your name if you don’t know what it means. I don’t care which one you pick. First, middle, or last. Actually, my last name (kinda) means hero so I’m a Durable Hero! But yeah, look up your name and see if you can adopt it as a way of life. As a part of who you are. Some parents don’t really look into purposefully naming a child. Those parents probably already told their kids from the door what their name represents. For those of you that didn’t know, it could be a special surprise.

My parents told me about my name early on, but they didn’t name me on purpose. But, very rarely did I see my name as a way to live. Now that I have, it’s really something to think about as a source of motivation.