I owe Mark Zuckerberg lunch

ACHEE, STAGE MOM, LOVING FRIEND. She is THE Leigh Ann Corpuz to the rest of the world, but for me, she will always be the caring woman who loves Hello Kitty. 

When Mark Zuckerberg invented Facebook, he only wanted to gain new friends. Little did he know that his desire to become Mr. Congeniality would become the world’s biggest social networking site, connecting people separated by time, distance and circumstances.

If only I can text or call him personally, I would, to thank him for paving the way to find two women whom I have loved so dearly. Two women who taught me how to love at a very young age. 

Today, after years of looking for their accounts in FB, the search came full circle.

Out of the tech wilderness, I found my two achees, Speech and Theater Arts Maven Leigh Ann Corpuz- Perez and Writer/Graphic Artist Extraordinaire Leilani Corpuz-Uy, and I couldn’t contain my happiness.

EVEN CROCODILES CAN'T RESIST her charm with that signature
Sharon Cuneta smile.

Achee Leigh Ann was the first person who called me Best Friend. When the whole world was telling me that I am not handsome within social standards, she saw something that only my dad and amah would have only seen, too. She never fails to celebrate my vigor, my wit and my charm. ABOVE ALL, she was also a focal person in my life, and in my “two peso coin” journey to become a Campus Journalist. If not for her, I would have not offered the coin of THE CAMPUS JOURNALISM LEGEND to mass and made a wish. 

I would have been a Plummer today, fixing her kitchen sink.

ACHEE LEILANI, my first role model
in Feature Writing. She has always been
beauty and brains. 

Her sister, Achee Leilani, was my first idol in Feature Writing, the category I love most, which helped widened my reach. Under THE Mr. Militante, she won as second place in Feature Writing during the Division Secondary Schools Press Conference. She inherited this position from my mentor, Ma’am Aida Penaredondo. In 2001, I was given the opportunity to continue her passion for writing as Feature Editor.

Finding them before a landmark year in my life comes just gives me THE goose bumps. It made me realize that separation from people I loved most can never diminish my connection to them, because our years of being apart from each other only made my love for these two women of grace and substance grow stronger and fonder.

I am so happy to reunite with these two important women in my life. I thank the Lord Almighty for orchestrating this moment, because I felt I regained a long lost piece of my heart again. 

Because of these two women, I owe Mark Zuckerberg lunch.