Why don’t people value me?

I hear you. For YEARS I was known as "Linda's little sister". I have a Christian name, but every first day when the teacher made up the roll, I had to spell the last name (11 letters) for them, and, even if I spelled the first name, I would get "Marsha", or "Marga", or "Margaret"- everything but my CORRECT name - all year around. It was bad enough I was named for Grandma, but I always thought it was an "old lady" name. I still do.

Cheer up, though.You can and eventualy WILL outgrow that "little sister" notation, as irritating as it might be. The eighth grade teacher in my old grammar school had both me and my older sister. We are seven years apart. The last time I saw this teacher before I made eighth grade myself was when I was I the second grade and my sister had to graduate summer school - she came to the ceremony and at the time I was a skinny seven-year-old. Fast forward to my time in eighth grade. Same teacher. When she got to my name, she didn't remember me, though I gave her the name three different times. Finally, I said, though I hated to do it, "Linda's little sister."

The teacher's face cleared. As she bent over her roll book to enter my name, she blurted out, "Boy...did you EVER get fat!"

Naturally, the class roared. I never heard the end of that all year. And I was not fat at ALL. I was normal weight for a thirteen-year-old. But teachers didn't care at that time (1968).