But what was I going to study there? For the longest time, I assumed Classical Liberal Arts (CLA) would be my trajectory. It seemed fitting, as I enjoyed literature and homeschooled from first grade to graduation. The only real obstacle would be Latin, a language I absolutely abhorred.

I had no idea what I would do with this major. Maybe become a teacher, or maybe I’d get married and only use it in homeschooling my own kids. Truth be told, I wasn’t really looking too far into the future at that time, and CLA was really the only major that interested me at Patrick Henry.

How an Immortal Reset My Trajectory

Around age sixteen, I joined an online writing community called the Habit: Student Edition. During my time there, I met a writer who soon became one of my best friends - the one and only, . We became friends through my reading her story and starting up a sort of joke that she was, verily and forsooth, an Immoral.

In retaliation, she said I was being an infamous journalist and spreading propaganda about her, which gave way to the name “Lissie Lane” (a play on Lois Lane, the famous reporter from the DCU). I adopted the persona, and so the joke continued.

Fast forward a year later, when my Mom begins signing me up for Patrick Henry’s teen camps. I don’t remember what really sparked me to take the joke with Lady Larke seriously, but somehow or another I asked my Mom to register me for Journalism & Digital Media. Just to try it out, since I really knew almost nothing about journalists - except that they were annoying as heck in most popular media.

Well, I went to the camp. And I loved it. Here was a way I could use my writing, and tell stories, AND not have to study Latin. It was a win-win-win situation.

Thus I ended up wanting to pursue the route of the very trope which annoyed me so much as a kid. God really does have a wonderful sense of humor.

Discovering Sonder

I mentioned this word in my previous Unlocking Elisabeth post.

In case you don’t remember, the dictionary definition of ‘sonder’ is:

SONDER. noun

the awareness that other people all have their own complex set of feelings and experiences, that everyone else is the main character in a story wherein you are a side character

In my post, I explained why this word really captured my fascination.

There’s a song by RUSH (one of my, and my dad’s, favorite bands) called Entre Nous1 that also captures this sonder in its first verse.

“We are secrets to each other
Each one's life a novel no one else has read
Even joined in bonds of love
We're linked to one another by such slender threads.”

I think this understanding, that every person you see is the main character of their own book, can give you a new perspective on life. It can change the way you think and react to that random stranger at the grocery store, that driver who ran into your lane, that couple waiting at the crosswalk, that elderly man or woman sitting alone and unnoticed by a society whose gaze is perpetually turned inward.

And Continuing…

Persuing a major in Journalism at PHC wasn’t on my bingo card, but I’m really excited for it. I still don’t know a lot about the media world, nor how I’d like to use the major after college.2 But I’m excited to see how God writes my story and where it takes me.

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The nannies in the orphanage called the little girl “Bo-Chang,” meaning smooth or prosperous. A common name, supposedly carrying good luck, in well-meant albeit neutral hopes that the orphan would have a smooth and prosperous life.

During January 2008, a plane landed in China bearing a couple who, though they had tried, were unable to have children. An adoption agency called America World had matched them with a baby from the other side of the world.

Though they kept “Chang” as a middle name in legal papers, the couple chose to give her a new first one. They called her Elisabeth Grace, after the Elisabeth in the Bible, meaning ‘vow of God.’

This was the name she would go by for the rest of her life.

“Look, it’s Baby Elisabeth!” her father crooned as she seized his thumb in an iron grip.

“Are you always going to call her that?” a friend asked. “Even when she’s grown up?”

“She’ll always be Baby Elisabeth to me,” said her father with a smile.

It was the name, though a simple term of paternal affection, that absolutely no one else would call me. That privilege belonged to my baba, and him alone.

Sure enough, it was the name he would always call me. Even when I was old enough to walk, to run, to ride a bike without training wheels, to read on my own, to get my first phone, to move from High School to college - in Dad’s mind, I would forever be his Baby Elisabeth.

My mother, ever loving and practical, called me Grace. Besides being my first of two middle names, it was short, sweet, and easy to say in a hurry.

Surprisingly, no one else picked up on the briefer name, and Mom became the only person ever to use it frequently. It was almost like a secret joke between the two of us, for strangers would be momentarily confused when I was called “Grace” rather than Elisabeth.

Neither of us minded, after all, both names were equally a part of me.

When my parents adopted another girl, this time from Ethiopia, my new little sister, finding Elisabeth too much of a mouthful, shortened it to ‘Liz.’ This, along with the affectionate and occasional “Big Sister,” were frequented most by her.

Flash forward to Junior year of High School, in which I joined an private online community of writers and, consequently, made some of the best friends I’d ever had (outside my direct family).

Due to a series of peculiar jokes, mostly revolving around journalists and the art of quoting out of context, I received the affectionate nickname “Lissie Lane” (in mimicry of Lois Lane) from . This new nickname spread throughout my writing group until all my friends there began calling me ‘Lissie.’

Besides having humorous origins, the nickname helped me identify my writer friends whenever I stumbled across them on some other various online platform.

Furthermore, it was, if anything else, an accurate nickname, playing into the unique spelling of Elisabeth - with an ‘s’ and not a ‘z.’ I ended up liking it so much I carried it along into my closest college friend groups. It was a little silly and a little endearing, making it a perfect name for my friends to use.

About a year or two ago, I learned a new word.

SONDER. noun

the awareness that other people all have their own complex set of feelings and experiences, that everyone else is the main character in a story wherein you are a side character

It absolutely fascinated me. By this time, I had already decided to pursue a journalism major in college, and this word perfectly encapsulated how I perceived journalism. Everyone lives a unique and wonderful story, and I wanted to help them share it with others.

So I combined the word with the name of my favorite X-man (Rogue) and thus was born Sonder Marie, my Infamous Journalist persona. Almost nobody called me this, but it’s a name I really like and want to use in the future.

My full legal name is Elisabeth Grace Chang Biggs, and I love it. I love the people who call me by it and all the endearing, humorous nicknames in between.

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