The origin of the username

I’m just leaving this here because some people may wonder what the username chiawase means.

Simply put, it’s a play on two words: my nickname and the Japanese word for happiness—shiawase (しあわせ). And it even has an origin story! :)

Back when I was a freshman, I joined numerous student organizations. One of them was an org for film enthusiasts and aspiring film-makers. The reason why I joined that was because that time, I really wanted to try and make more videos—maybe even try and make my own (short) film—and that’s how I found myself there.

These orgs had an event called a General Assembly, or GA for short. It’s simply an event when all members, old and new alike, would gather and get informed of what projects the org has in store for them for that semester or school year, and maybe even have a few activities like group dynamics to promote member interaction. Most of the time, they would have an overall theme for the event. For the film org’s GA, it was superheroes/villains (?), as far as I remember. We were to dress up as our own superheros/villains.

I was really excited for this one, because I liked the idea of having to dress up (I just didn’t acknowledge it as much at the time, hehe). But before anything else, I had to answer the question: “who would I be?” Since it was “dress up as your own superhero”, I had to have some kind of name or alias.

Before I got to a name, though, I thought, “what would I do as a superhero?” I was used to superheroes having an alias that explained what they were or what they did, like Elastigirl from The Incredibles or Spiderman, so I sought out my purpose first. Back then, I wanted to make everyone happy, and thus tried to build something from there.

I found out that the Japanese word for happiness is shiawase (しあわせ). So… I put two and two together, and ta-da! I got my superhero name-turned-username for almost every account I own: Chi Awase (ちあわせ). It’s also nice to know that chi could also mean “energy”, so I really loved the nickname.

I’ve used the nickname ever since, because I still stick true to what I want to do: I want to make people happy. And I’m still a big ball of energy.

I guess I’ve toned down a little to not include everyone, but that’s only because I understand that I can’t please all. :)