From the day we are born, our names become a defining aspect of our individuality. For some, names bring success. For others, names are a culprit that lands a person in the furthest shadows of a phone book where few prying eyes go.

Ellen Zywiciel, a graduate student in education, was not always of the “Z”-named breed. In fact, she was lucky enough to have gotten through her high school graduation with her maiden name being Bacon. Come her final graduation ceremony from NIU, she would be one of the individuals burdened with being one of the last to cross the stage and receive her diploma.

“This will be the first time I graduate with the last name Zywiciel,” Ellen said.

Fortunately, Ellen is able to find a bright side of being one of the final graduates in the ceremony.

“I guess everyone’s happy to hear that you’re coming up,” Ellen said, “because then they know after you’re done they can leave.”

With her newly acquired last name comes another change. Although she had previously been one of the students with a name higher up on the roll call list of her classes, she now finds herself stuck in a situation that many students with names that fall later in the alphabet do – having to sit through the entire list of students before even being able to consider ditching out of class a bit early.

“It’s annoying,” Ellen said. “The worst thing that comes in hand with having a name that comes close to last in the alphabet is that you just have to wait a lot of times before being called.”

School isn’t the only place where the alphabetical order of her married name becomes untimely.

“People will call you in the middle of the night and say ‘Hey, do you know you’re the last name in the phone book?” Ellen said.

Not everyone with a last name that comes early in the alphabet catches breaks, however. Jesse Abreu, a junior psychology major said there are some things that shouldn’t be envied about his name.

“Freshman year during speech class I always got called up first,” Abreu said. “Usually people with last names like mine get called up first for presentations.”

So, rest easy. From “A to Z,” students across campus have to deal with sticky situations.