How do I respond?

[Starshyne]

Maybe some of you have experienced this and can help me out. I am still trying to wrap my brain around the fact that I am a divorced woman.

As many of you know, I am a teacher. School has started up and I am going by my madien name. I got divorced over the summer and kept very quiet about my marital problems that had been going on for most of last school year, so very few co-workers knew about it.

No announcement was made at work about my name being changed. However, the sign outside my classroom has been changed to say Ms. Madien Name. So I thought that would be enough. I am wrong. People are calling me by my married name and when I correct them, they seem shocked that I have a new name. Then I have to go into reasons why and I get embarassed all over again.

But the most difficult part is the kids. My students from the past few years will pass me in the hall and say "Hi Mrs. Married Name!" I don't have time to correct them because it is just in passing. When I did tell one former student that my name has changed, he asked me a bunch of questions such as "did you break up with your boyfriend over the summer?" I started to feel uncomfortable and told him that I had my name changed and that is all he needed to know.

How do I handle this? Do I just wait it out and hope that eventually everyone catches on to my new name?