Now there's a question I'm aware I never addressed : why is my website called "airnima"?
It's just simple really :
air + anima
And with that, I realize that this barely explains anything.
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Generally speaking, I typically the username "Air" for online platforms (or at least, some variant of it - like "AiR_V2" or "AiRV002").
However, when I first created the username, I mainly focused on the negative connotations.
Air => Aside from the fact that the word has the first two letters of my name, it's just how I viewed myself : a ghost as thin as air, since I felt that a large part of myself was gone forever due to depression. I'm still working on recovering those parts. And maybe forming new ones.
V2 (or any variation) => It refers to how I keep comparing myself to people (and how much I despise it). Of course, I may talk more about that sometime later.
Eventually, it just grew on me.
As years passed, air just became something I underappreciated - considering that I've mostly shut myself inside.
Not to mention that "V2" does has the alternative interpretation that it's a better version than what it was before.
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So we've established that "air" should be part of the domain name.
However, it took me a while before I can figure out the second part of it.
After all, I'm pretty sure that "air.com" has already been taken. Besides, I felt that it was a little too short.
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And so, I spent at least 2 hours trying to come up with a name.
I've had friends pitch in ideas.
But for some reason, I felt like that they were all a little off.
Maybe I should input a psychology term - since my main goal with this site was to communicate about mental health.
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"Psych-" is the prefix typically used for words referring to the mind.
So maybe, put it in front of "air"?
I thought it was a great name, until I tried typing it in the search engine.
This made me realize that people are more likely to pronounce it as "psy-chair" instead of "psych-air".
Not like that was ever a choice for me. According to a website that sells domains, it turns out it was already taken.
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Or maybe I should be more specific. Psychology is a very broad topic after all.
Perhaps, I should use a term that relates to the soul - because most of the activities I have done on this platform has included a lot of soul-searching and introspective reflection.
And that's when I recalled the Latin word for soul : animus, which I know I can combine easily with "air".
I nearly went with "airnimus", until I discovered a variant that also refers to the soul : anima.
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Both terms were used by Carl Jung to describe the collective unconscious (the part of the human mind that contains impulses and memories one isn't aware of).
The "animus" is described as the unconscious masculine side of a woman.
The "anima" is described as the unconscious feminine side of a man.
And both words refer to our inner life.
From Jung's words, the anima / animus plays an important role in deciding how we think and feel about our lives.
It creates our ability to relate as human beings to the world and other people.
It helps us draw a bridge between our personal unconscious and the collective unconscious using intuitive and creative images from our inner worlds.
It is the thing that animates us.
So I figured that it has to be the perfect name.
When it came to deciding between "anima" and "animus", the choice was a lot easier to make.
"Animus" can also be defined as "hostility" or "ill feeling". Which are connotations "anima" doesn't have.
And that's how "airnima" was born.
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This wasn't the first time where I had to spend a lot of time coming up with a name that seemed good enough to me.
I also find it hard to come up with names for my characters whenever I'm writing anything.
Generally speaking, I try to avoid naming characters as much as possible.
One of my classmates from calculus can attest to that.
I spent an entire class period trying to figure out what Alstroemeria's protagonist should be called.
...Wait till she finds out that I didn't even use the name I found in the class period for the final product.
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