In English my name means “Western Meadow”. It doesn’t translate in other languages. It’s like a train. It could be shorter. It could be just Wes. But instead I prefer Wesley.

Nobody else In my family carries my name. Both my dad and I have our first and last names starting with W. He’s Warren and now I’m Wesley. That's how my name was chosen. 

We are fairly similar. Mostly because I’ve spent so much time with him.  We always want to do our own thing. Just like my name. It’s different. It doesn’t matter that other people want us to do something. We stay on our own path and rarely stray from it. 

There was one time when my dad and I were ice fishing, but our family was coming to our house so we needed to leave the lake soon. It didn’t matter to us that they wanted us at the house after we started catching fish after fish. At that point we had gone rogue. No one could tell us what to do. It was just us following our different paths just like our names. 

We’re always looking forward to the next thing to come, ice fishing, fishing lake Michigan or even hunting in the crisp fall air that has that high pitched "eeeee" sound just like the end of my name. 

In school people wonder what to call me. “Is it Wesley or Wes,”. I could tell them either one but it usually doesn't matter. They use the one they want. I’m not picky about it. After more than 12 years of school you begin to care less about the small details of what you want to be called. I like to keep it simple like my two syllable name. 

In my family our names are unique. Our names differ from the traditional ones passed down to our parents and grandparents. Most of the names that were passed down are usually associated with our older relatives. Names like Gail, Rodger, Art and Wally. Ours are more modern. Wesley is in between though. It hasn’t been used much in the past and it's not being used a lot now. Really, when's the last time you knew more than one or two Wesley's? In fact, I only know one other person named Wesley. 

It fits me for who I am because like me it’s different from the rest. Never really following trends. . I don’t know another name that suits me better than Wesley. In the end I think Wesley does fit me just fine. And so I will always remain, Wesley Weaver.