Happy Half Birthday to me! It's a happy day indeed. I wasn't even planning on posting anything today, but I just had an awesome surprise and I couldn't wait to share it!
As you know, I've been working on my blog updates and updating my social media accounts. I have been so excited about it, but one thing that I wasn't really feeling was my new Instagram name. (I changed it to magically_melissa_jo if you missed it.) I wanted it to reflect my new blog name and "brand" but I wasn't happy about having the underscores in it. It didn't really bother me at first... and I thought having underscores separating the words actually made it easier to read. Then, I got the emails.
One of the small shops that I follow, and receive emails from, changed their Instagram name at the end of March... the same day I wrote about my name change. I received the email mere hours after I'd posted my blog post. In their email, they announced their name change, and included the text, "That's right! No more ugly underscore!"
The words "no more ugly underscore" have stuck in my brain ever since. I received a few more emails from them with that same intro text, and every time it cut me like a knife. I started to seriously second guess myself. I knew most of the large accounts for celebrities or brands don't include underscores. And suddenly, I didn't know what I was thinking. Since then, I've wanted to change it.
Every time I've looked at my own account, the words "ugly underscore" have bounced around my head and I have immediately left my page. Even then, I didn't rush to do it right away... and truthfully, it's been moving day to day on my to do list for weeks.
This evening, I decided it was time to stop avoiding it and to deal with it. I opened the app with every intention of changing my name to magicallymelissajo, the same name as before but with no underscores. So I went to change my name and for the heck of it, I deleted the underscores and the jo and hit done. I was sure that I couldn't use magicallymelissa because every time I've checked for about a year it's been taken.
But it didn't kick me out or make me pick another name. I quickly grabbed my laptop and put the name into it online. No one came up but me. Then, I Googled it. The only results were my Instagram and my blog. Was this even real? Finally, I switched over to my Happily Ever Hatter business Instagram account on the app, and then I switched back to my other account to check one last time and there it was... magicallymelissa.
I still can't believe it. Like me, there have been multiple ways other Instagram users have tried to have some variation of that name by adding "ugly underscores" between the words or at the end. For weeks, I've been kicking myself for avoiding changing my name, but because I didn't do it, the name I really wanted was finally available!
I'm so excited and I think that I'm still partially in shock! I keep opening my Instagram to check that it's still there. I can't believe this worked out for me. Talk about having a little bit of magic and pixie dust in your corner! This probably sounds ridiculous, but I wanted this name so much and I thought it would never be possible. Now, my blog name, Facebook page name and Instagram name are all the same and I'm so happy!!!
"Even miracles take a little time," and this one was definitely worth waiting for! °o°
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