"Why Couldn't I Have Been Named Ashley?"

Her name is actually Immaculeta Uzoma Achilike. In the personal narrative, the writer reveals that her younger self had wished for a cooler name, but she changes her mind when she visits Nigeria and discovers what her name means and connects her to (although she also goes by the simpler Imma).

Here are all the word lists to support the reading of Grade 7 Unit 1's texts from SpringBoard's Common Core ELA series: The Road Not Taken, Choices, Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes, Dust Tracks on a Road, Bad Boy, Why Couldn't I Have Been Named Ashley?, Phaethon, Daedalus and Icarus, Arachne, The Lion, the Fox, and the Stag, A Note from the Author, creation myths
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. perturbed
    thrown into a state of agitated confusion
    "Ashley!" exclaimed Mrs. Renfro, and simultaneously three heads whipped around at attention towards the perturbed teacher.
  2. plausible
    apparently reasonable, valid, or truthful
    I put some things together in my mind and came up with a plausible equation: COOL NAME = POPULARITY.
  3. perspiration
    salty fluid secreted by sweat glands
    My ears burned with embarrassment and droplets of perspiration formed on my nose.
  4. volatile
    liable to lead to sudden change or violence
    Before I responded, the laughs that the other kids in class had been holding back suddenly exploded, like a volatile vial of nitroglycerin, into peals of laughter.
  5. emboss
    raise in a relief
    You know, the ones they sell in the stores along with name-embossed sharpeners, rulers and pencil pouches.
  6. rummage
    search haphazardly
    Every year I searched through and rummaged around that rack at the store, but I could never find a pencil with my name on it.
  7. purity
    the state of being unsullied by sin or moral wrong
    "'Immaculeta' means 'purity,' 'Uzoma' means 'the good road' and..."
  8. astonished
    filled with the emotional impact of overwhelming surprise
    I was astonished and pleased.
  9. vanity
    feelings of excessive pride
    There my name is not embossed on any pencil or vanity plate.
  10. etch
    carve or cut a design or letters into
    It is etched in the minds of the people.
Created on Fri Aug 22 14:06:24 EDT 2014 (updated Fri Aug 22 22:45:32 EDT 2014)

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