The Godfather

When I was new in STI one of the events that really got me excited was the STI Annual Anniversary Celebration. That time around it was the 18th year of STI and the event was held at the Folk Arts theatre. That time the anniversary was geared towards having a concert to mark the 18th year of the school and the concert was open to the public. But before the concert started in the evening which was topbilled by Regine Velasquez, a series of competitions ensued in the morning - STI Singing, Duo, Hataw Sayaw and the Search for Mr. and Ms. STI.

It was the first time I was involved in a pageant and I was appalled by the candidates that came from all over the country to compete. That year a gorgeous 19 year old was a head above the rest of her batchmates. As the director noted, even during the rehearsals they knew that was going to be the title holder. The winner was Jeanne Harn from STI College Ortigas-Cainta.

A year after she won, I helped her finish her farewell speech and helped her rehearse it while we recorded it. That was the start of a friendship that grew through the years. Jeanne eventually transferred to Iacademy which is a sister school of STI and was then starting out. Their school was just two floors beneath my office which prompted Jeanne to sometimes visit me and have some laughs. We shared lots of happy moments most specifically when I helped out emcee her birthday parties at the Golden Acres and Tahanang Walang Hagdan. For me her deeds were something worth emulating.

Jeanne has lots of friends and when she told me that she was getting me as one of the Godfathers of her daughter I was quite excited. In the early part of 2000 my babies from St. Scholastica would invite me to be godfather to their babies, now its my "babies" from STI who are starting get me as Ninong to their children. Time flies fast and in years to come I expect a lot of my alagas to start getting married and eventually bear a child and some will get me as Godfather. I need to brush up on my " I am nowhere to be found during Christmas season excuses" to be able to have a Merry Christmas myself.

Kidding aside, I am really happy to be a ninong to Gabrielle or Gaby. I am looking forward to fast forward time so that when my "inaanak" eventually joins her first beauty pageant, I will be there to cover it and blog about it. Congratulations Jeanne.