The principal called my old name at graduation rehearsal

Dear Delyara, I am graduating from high school next week, and today the principal read my old name during rehearsal. He corrected himself immediately. Most students did not react, but I heard one person whisper to another, and suddenly the gym felt like a place I had survived rather than a place I was leaving. My new name appears on class lists, my student card, and the diploma. The office promised the announcement would be correct. Still, the old name was waiting somewhere in the paperwork, ready to step onto the stage before me. After rehearsal, the principal apologized in his office. He looked genuinely ashamed. I told him it was okay because adults become relieved when you make forgiveness quick. It was not okay. That name belongs to school photographs where I am wearing clothes chosen to make my family comfortable, report cards signed by a father who no longer speaks to me, and a version of my body I spent years trying to inhabit without success. My grandmother is attending the ceremony. She has practiced my name but still hesitates before saying it. I am frightened that when the announcer speaks, I will not hear my name at all. I will hear the pause before it and wonder which person they almost invited onto the stage instead.