mia lorelei

given all this time in quarantine, i've done a lot of thinking and reflecting on who i am. i know that sounds kind of deep, and i guess it is, but i thought i'd take a lighter approach and explain one of the most basic things to know about me. my name.

over the past couple of years, i've grown to love my name more and more. i don't know if that sounds like a narcissistic thing to say, but isn't it cool that out of every single name your parents could have chosen, they landed on yours. i mean... yea. anyways, the reason that i've started to appreciate my name more is because i actually know the story behind it now. so i thought i'd share that exactly.

first of all, the reason why i thought of writing this is because recently i've been admiring this one necklace that my mom gave to me months ago. i'm not really sure why i've randomly started appreciating it more but that's besides the point. the necklace i am referring to is this delicate little gold chain that is customized with my middle name, lorelei. so this random spark of appreciation got me thinking, and like i have a pretty sick name. ok again, not i'm not like obsessed with it in a self-absorbed way (at least i don't think so lmao), but i mean... okay let me just tell the backstory and maybe you'll understand.

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ok so first things first: mia.

nothing really behind this, my parents just picked it out of an old baby name book or something.

so that's my story! thanks for reading!

ok for real. i mean... mia means mine in italian, so i guess that's cute. oh and according to urban dictionary apparently i'm supposed to be "a wonderful girl" and "tends to be very sarcastic". ok true. well, at least the second part.

anyways, the story i came here to tell is about my middle name: lorelei.

yes, that is my middle name. not my last name, not some random name i made up. mia lorelei, that's me (you'd be surprised at how many people still think it's my last name because of my social media handles & i mean i don't blame them).

ok ok, i promise the story is coming.

so, before i was born (and still to this day), one of my parents favorite artists was ella fitzgerald, aka the "queen of jazz". ella has this song titled "lorelei" and the lyrics go like this:

she had a yen for all the sailors

fishermen and gobs and whalers

she had a most immoral eye

they called her lorelei

she created quite a stir

and i want to be like her

and so on and so forth. the whole song is about wanting to be like the lorelei, which if you don't know is a legendary german mermaid who would sing in hopes for her lover to one day hear her calls. according to the story, she also jumped off the rock she waited on to her death because her lover never returned, but if we leave it at " beautiful mermaid who sang" it sounds cuter. also forget the whole "yen for all the sailors", because frankly i don't need no man despite all the boy talk i did in my last post. besides the point (kinda), so this song was one of my parents favorites of ella's, and they decided to name me after it. mia lorelei.

that's the end of my parents part of the story, but for me it goes on a little longer.

growing up, jazz was constantly playing in my life. it's one of the first genres of music that i really listened to, and it helped shape what my music taste is now. so as i got older, i started getting more into music, and finding what i like and who i like. things like that. and more recently (probably over the last year), i've - oh speak of the devil "i'm confessing that i love you" by ella fitzgerald just started playing from my playlist - started to get back into jazz again. where it all started i guess you could say.

anyways, i have to admit. it's pretty cool hearing songs that my parents loved (and of course still love), but especially listening to lorelei now that i'm older. before, i never really thought much about it, or really cared about the fact that i was named after a song. but now that i'm a full fledged music head, that's frickin cool dude!! and i think it's also so special to me because like most people i know are named after meaningful things in their culture's language, or a family member, but i was named after a song. i think it fits my & my family's personality so well since 1. i love singing and 2. my family loves music and we literally have a whole room dedicated to it. it just warms my heart. idk man.

getting more into jazz (and just music in general) has not only brought me closer to my parents, but actually is what brought me and one of my good friends together. we both already had SO much in common at the time, but one day i saw that he was listening to one of ella fitzgerald's albums and i freaked out to say the least. i mean when i brought it up to him and explained the story, he did too. and i know i keep saying this, and you probably get my point by now, but that's so. cool! like music bringing people together. that's the type of thing that keep me going through life.

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anyways, that was my story. i hope you liked it, hope you thought it was as cute as i find it.

oh and thanks for all the love on my little comeback post a few weeks back, means a lot.

talk soon.

xx, mia lorelei