A Jones by any other name

In my continued search for a profile pic (I know, riveting stuff), I decided to google myself. Here were some of the results, in descending order of how likely it is that it is actually me:










An extremely common last name and a fairly common first name makes for a combination that I know is not unique. I like to think of myself as the one and only, or at least the real Joshua Jones, but I know there are others (imposters).

For one thing, any time I try to open a new email account, no possible combination or arrangement of my name will work without a number. I’ve tried a million times with several email accounts but always come back to good old 17. But more convincingly, I met one once.

When I was eleven, my mom let me help out in the Candy Store at Camp Connri. Each camper would walk up, hand me their card with their name and cash amount on it, tell me what they wanted, and I would get it for them and cross off the cost from the card. One day, a boy approached the window and handed me his card with my name on it. There we were, face to face, and I was dumbfounded. I wonder if any of those pictures are him.

Even more bizarre, at the exact same time at the very next window over from that boy was another boy, a complete stranger to him. His name: Matthew Jones. And I’m reasonably certain I didn’t dream all this.