It happens once every couple months.

I may have missed a class for a track meet or an illness, and when my teacher asks if I have the homework, I’ll respond that I missed class and couldn’t find the assignment on Schoology.

“Oh, but I emailed it to you, so you still could have done it,” he or she will respond with a tone that betrays a hint of an accusation, thinking they have just tried and convicted me on a charge of homework evasion.

The only problem is that I did not get any email. It wasn’t until the end of my freshman year, after several such incidents, that I realized why. My teachers were sending their emails to Will McDonald. Just not to the right one.

After getting several emails asking me to look into broken pipes or to attend a staff meeting, I realized that I did not have the distinction of being the only Will McDonald in the district. Instead, I shared the honor with a very kind custodian at Greens Farms Elementary School.

I sent him an email, and he informed me that he had been just as baffled as I was and would try to see if the district’s tech specialists could fix the issue. Unfortunately, due to the nature of the district’s email system, in which emails are based on first and last names, no solution was possible aside from one of us changing our names.

Making matters worse  is the fact that I’m entered into the system as William McDonald, while my custodian brother-in-name is registered as Will.

Since I’ve never gone by William for a day in my life, people seeking to email me inevitably see the option with “Will” in it and select that, without noticing that it isn’t even in the format that student’s addresses follow.

It’s truly a lose-lose situation for both of us. I don’t get most of my emails, while he gets most of his because people know him by Will and typically select the proper option. But this comes with a plethora of my correspondence, from Google Documents made for English projects to dozens of Inklings articles intended for me.

While I may never meet my name twin, if I ever do, I’m sure that all of my emails he has received will ensure that he’ll already know a solid chunk about me. Until then, if you need to email me, please take three seconds and make sure you’re sending it to the right Will first.