I was going to hyphenate mine after we got married. I was dead set on it, until I wrote it out a million times and it was so.fricken.long! Then, my soon to be MIL said something very insightful- that she changed her name when she got married and even kept it after her divorce because she wanted to have the same last name as her kids. Something about that made total sense to me. Now that I have kids with my husband I really rings true. Idk I like "belonging" to our little family. I'm lucky in that I'm proud of my dad's name and my husband's, and the way I see it I'll always be my Maiden name, too, if that makes sense? Like, I'm still a Burleigh as much as I've grown into a LeBoeuf. I also always say I'm my mom's family, too. Ya know?

Great piece! Love your perspective!