What's my name?

I just saw on 60 minutes a group of teenagers who spend a school year learning how to sing gospel. They all come from disadvantaged backgrounds as far as families, missing parents etc. It was amazing, one of the exercises the teacher has them do is to shout out their names, shout them out loud! It was so moving, so sad that so many couldn't do it, many would mumble their names, many would say it so softly that you couldn't hear what they said. They would do this exercise each day at class. At their last performance of the year they did it after the last song, in front of the audience. No one was sure what would happen with this one young woman who had not done it all year, so when it came time to say her name, for the first time all year, she shouted it out and I imagine she regained some ownership of a part of her that was missing, one she had abandoned years ago, just like many people abandoned her so many times.
How many times have I abandoned myself in the face of others, how many times I have not shouted my name for all to hear because I was afraid, because I was not sure, because I chose to play safe, because safety was all I wanted, more than I wanted to own who I am, and you know that was okay for then. Each day I get more opportunities to say my name to those who care and those who scare me, many don't understand but my heart does, to take just the next step.