Why Petra?
Petrichor: "a pleasant smell that frequently accompanies the first rain after a long period of warm, dry weather."
As a writer, names are hard. Sometimes you’ll spend hours trying to think of a name that fits a character and come up with nothing. Other times, you’ll just write something down and go on with your life. Tons of us have some sort of placeholder name(s) we default to for improving our writing workflow. But sometimes, you just see something that fits exactly how you want.
This has been the process for finding my own name as it clicked I was trans and honestly wasn’t attached to my birthname. I derrived Petra from Petrichor, which I feel is a beautiful word in the first place. But before I figured this one out, I jumped around from using my birthname to Dahlia to Dahl but nothing really clicked. I then started thinking about what I love in life.
I’ve always felt connected to the rain. I’ll stand in it for hours if I can, especially when its a nice, cold rain. Most people I come across will complain and maybe there is some sort of complex about how I relate to not normally being liked. Plus, the association with gloomy vibes reflects my absolutely horrendous mental state. But, given that I’ve made it this far and I am finally working on my happiness, sometimes sad isn’t bad. As the French say, “C’est la vie.”