What's in your name?

You may throw a weird look upon this blog site's title. Or you may think that the writer must have been trying to search for some quite catchy phrase which would induce some interest in her readers about what could be this blog site's all about. Well, it's really some effort for me to come up with something like that. So I decided to just start this whole thing off from something that basically would identify me. And it's my name--Riza Pilapil.

Learning from my French dictionary during college, "riz," which is actually what my few close friends call me, literally means "rice" in such language. Now, when I got to introduce myself (in full name) to some new acquaintances, or one time when the saleslady in Watsons to whom I gave my SM Advantage Card as I did my purchase saw my imprinted name on it, the immediate reaction was: "Kaano-ano mo si Pilar Pilapil?" (How are you related to Pilar Pilapil?) Now, I won't contest on Ms. Pilapil's popularity that the people is so used to connect with my being (or to those with the same surname as hers... or mine). I don't also mind if those who have asked me that question cares about the importance of knowing someone who's closely related to a celebrity (at least by surname). By the way, I found this site, and maybe this is one helpful link for those trying to search their roots.

Now after all my declarations on the previous paragraph, I would also associate my name to the muddy pathway along the rice fields, which is so useful for the farmers in getting through their daily tasks. Yeah, that's the pilapil. If you're a Filipino, I hope you would know this. I have also been the center of teasing by my classmates when during one point in the 90's, a commercial about this bathroom tissue in its easy pull-it packaging came out. The commercial's recall was because of this catchy jingle centering on hygiene. I won't elaborate more on that. I'll just give away the lines: "sa bukid walang papel, ikiskis mo sa pilapil." I didn't like the idea. But I think it created the identity the ad team aimed for.

I don't try to get away from the name that has been gifted to me since I was born into this world. I thank my parents for cluelessly putting together my name that complemented each other and that gave me a subject to start off with my blogspot.com. The more important thing is my identity belongs to God. And my name is written in his heart.

As it is written in John 1:12, I am God's child.
Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.

What's in your name?