Pronunciation
“KAH-luh.” There’s a silent L at the end, and nobody seems to know why. I’ve heard many different explanations for it, including:
- It used to be Kalla, but someone accidentally wrote the letters in the wrong order on a legally binding document…and decided not to change it?
- The L isn’t actually silent, it just sort of falls off at the end.
- Maybe it’s French? Sometimes French words don’t enunciate the last letter.
It comes from somewhere in the middle of Europe, but again: we’re not exactly sure. There is a lot of German and Czech blood in my family, but we also look and sound very Norwegian. My grandpa would get a nice bronze during the summer, so there might even be some Mediterranean in there. If you decided to pronounce the L, it would sound Middle Eastern. Basically, nobody has bothered to find out.
Either way, I’ve been correcting people my entire life, so if you get it wrong—no problem! Here are some ways to remember:
- It’s like “Koala,” but without the “O.”
- Kalal Kalal Kalal Kalal Kalal-Chameleon
- Did somebody “Kalal” doctor?
- Here’s a song about my last name…
About Me
The name Kalal is my mother’s, because she’s the strong, independent woman who raised me. My father was never part of the picture, but I believe I turned out better because of it.
I went through a lot of drastic changes when I was little: moving across town, moving across the country, watching marriages turn into divorces, and losing loved ones to addiction, kidney failure, cancer, and old age.
It forced me to grow up fast. I learned how to keep moving—even in the hardest of times. Like so many who find themselves in similar circumstances, I could have numbed the pain with alcohol or drugs or violence. I could have acted out, and lost a whole lot more than I already had. Instead, I turned to art.
From the time I could hold a pencil, I was drawing. In Elementary School, I fell in love with creative writing, filming home movies, and using the computer every day. In middle school, I started acting, making music, and performing in front of audiences big and small.
My career path has been just as eclectic—from retail to management to factory work to public school employee. While I’ll never claim to know it all, I am very proud of my long list of skills, and I’m always looking for new ways to bring them all together.
Bryce took all of the changes in stride and delivered high-quality finished products within the deadline despite all of the changes.
