Do you know who I am? Do you know what I am capable of?

The chances are you don’t. And to be honest – at this point in my life, I may not know who I am or all the things that I am capable of either. Which is fine if you ask me. What I do know, is that my name is Kiona. To this day, I hear all kinds of different pronunciations of it, and depending on my mood of the day I may be amused or annoyed.

In school however, it would take weeks, almost months for my teachers to remember how to correctly pronounce my name. My third grade teacher Mrs. Scalf was my favorite; she too however, had a hard time pronouncing my name in the beginning of the school year. So one day after complaining to my mom, she told me to tell my teacher that my name is pronounced like “key-on-a table!”

So from that moment on, Mrs. Scalf had no problem pronouncing my name and often called me “Kiona table” in an endearing way. We soon became best buds. I would often stay in class during lunch or after school to help her with cleaning the classroom or grading papers and such.

So whenever someone gives me that look that says, “I’m not going to remember how to pronounce your name even though you just told me.” I tell them “It’s like a key on a table” which always seems to do the trick!

I know this may not tell you much about who I am, you’ll just have to stay tuned for that; but at least now you know how to pronounce my name!