Yesterday, I wrote about my sweetie, and the fact that I refer to him as “The Electrician” here in blogland. I get asked about my own name here on Blue Speckled Pup quite a bit, as well.

My name isn’t Kay: I just play Kay on the internet.

I decided to use Kay as my pseudonym because my first name begins with a letter “K.” It really has nothing to do with being offensive or writing about controversial topics here, which we all know I generally avoid. I chose to write under a different name because of my profession.

When a person teaches teenagers for a living, she gets a first-hand look at how unbelievably skilled today’s youth are at navigating the internet. My students can do incredible things online, but to them, the most important use of the internet is to connect to people they know. I receive (and promptly decline) Facebook friend requests from my students on a regular basis. If I use my real name, they will find me faster than you could say “dog farts.”

I chose to use Kay to create some division between my teaching career and my writing. I felt that using my real name would prevent me from being as candid as I could be in my blog. After all, I speak differently, and about different topics, to my friends and family than I do to my students. This blog is something I do for myself and I want to be as authentically me as possible.

After all, a dog fart by any other name will still clear the room in a hurry.

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