Valuable
By Mark Isaiah David
Ours is a story of unexpected beginnings. Looking back on the eight years that we’ve known each other, I can’t help but think that the universe had its fun orchestrating our love story.
There definitely was no magic or spark or anything that would suggest romance on our first meeting. If anything, our first meeting could have led to a fierce debate. We met when Leah was on her fourth year in college and I was on my second. She was a member of a Christian organization at the time, and they put up a book sale featuring Christian books at the UP Mass Comm building. Being a bigtime book lover, I stopped by one afternoon to look at their stacks. I did not notice her sitting a bit farther away. I picked up one book, and speaking to no one in particular, instantly challenged its title:
“Seven steps to heaven?” I thought it was plain stupidity and naivete to think that there is a formula to get to heaven.
From behind me, Leah suddenly spoke, “One step lang nga e.”
Being the unspiritual person that I was, Leah’s sure declaration caused me to gear up in my debate-mode. I turned to face her, prepared to grill her about her faith. I was about to pounce, but I saw that she was pretty so I just bit my tongue. Typical guy behavior, I know.
A few months after our first encounter, I joined their organization and eventually accepted the Christian faith. Leah and I developed a strange and wonderful friendship, but all signs showed that we were destined to stay in the friend zone forever. We both lived in Bulacan, so we went home together, spending countless hours talking during the daily commute. She loved berating me for being a jerk to all my previous girlfriends, while I chided her for being such a ‘manang’. I also acted as a bridge for a good friend of ours who was then in-love with her, and in the process I learned about Leah’s ideal guy - someone older, more mature in the Christian faith, a righteous man of God, a gentleman through and through. It was clear to both of us that I do not fit the bill.
She turned down our friend, and we continued down the friendship road. Only, I knew I had already fallen for her. I had no plans of telling her about my feelings, though – I believed there was just no hope of her ever loving me back. Didn’t I just say I was so not her ideal guy? Still, I could not stop myself from dropping hints and clues at times. After all, I have always been a champion of lost causes.
One viciously hot summer afternoon, after I accompanied her in her errands, we went to get ourselves our favorite summer treat – McDonald’s strawberry sundae and a huge Coke. The airconditioning inside the store was fine, but the sweltering heat outside drained most of my energies."Punas ka ng pawis! Basang-basa na yang t-shirt mo. Yuck."
By Mark Isaiah David
Ours is a story of unexpected beginnings. Looking back on the eight years that we’ve known each other, I can’t help but think that the universe had its fun orchestrating our love story.
There definitely was no magic or spark or anything that would suggest romance on our first meeting. If anything, our first meeting could have led to a fierce debate. We met when Leah was on her fourth year in college and I was on my second. She was a member of a Christian organization at the time, and they put up a book sale featuring Christian books at the UP Mass Comm building. Being a bigtime book lover, I stopped by one afternoon to look at their stacks. I did not notice her sitting a bit farther away. I picked up one book, and speaking to no one in particular, instantly challenged its title:
“Seven steps to heaven?” I thought it was plain stupidity and naivete to think that there is a formula to get to heaven.
From behind me, Leah suddenly spoke, “One step lang nga e.”
Being the unspiritual person that I was, Leah’s sure declaration caused me to gear up in my debate-mode. I turned to face her, prepared to grill her about her faith. I was about to pounce, but I saw that she was pretty so I just bit my tongue. Typical guy behavior, I know.
A few months after our first encounter, I joined their organization and eventually accepted the Christian faith. Leah and I developed a strange and wonderful friendship, but all signs showed that we were destined to stay in the friend zone forever. We both lived in Bulacan, so we went home together, spending countless hours talking during the daily commute. She loved berating me for being a jerk to all my previous girlfriends, while I chided her for being such a ‘manang’. I also acted as a bridge for a good friend of ours who was then in-love with her, and in the process I learned about Leah’s ideal guy - someone older, more mature in the Christian faith, a righteous man of God, a gentleman through and through. It was clear to both of us that I do not fit the bill.
She turned down our friend, and we continued down the friendship road. Only, I knew I had already fallen for her. I had no plans of telling her about my feelings, though – I believed there was just no hope of her ever loving me back. Didn’t I just say I was so not her ideal guy? Still, I could not stop myself from dropping hints and clues at times. After all, I have always been a champion of lost causes.
One viciously hot summer afternoon, after I accompanied her in her errands, we went to get ourselves our favorite summer treat – McDonald’s strawberry sundae and a huge Coke. The airconditioning inside the store was fine, but the sweltering heat outside drained most of my energies."Punas ka ng pawis! Basang-basa na yang t-shirt mo. Yuck."
“Eh ang init sa labas eh!”, I answered. “At least ako nilalabas ko yung dumi sa katawan ko, unlike you na hindi pinapawisan! Sa palinisan ng loob ng katawan, talo kita!”
“Utot!” she squealed, and put out her tongue in reply to what I said. She was an incoming law student at UP, graduated college with honors, but she calls me names and puts her tongue out whenever she had no logical rebuttal for my teasings. We've been traveling the whole day under the sweltering heat but she still had the energy to laugh at me to my face. Gads, I thought. Be still, my heart.
"Bakit ba di ka pa mag-boyfriend? Para lagi kang may alalay", I told her. She said, "Bakit pa? andyan ka naman. sinasamahan mo ko, inaaliw. nagdadala ng gamit. Ano pa ang use ng boyfriend?" "Craaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaap, hahahaha!", I laughed, covering my thoughts. "So alila ang tingin mo sakin?" She laughed again, and put out her tongue.(Gads. akonalangakonalangakonalangakonalang!)
My eyes wandered around the McDonald's store, desperate to find something - anything - that could distract me enough to not blurt out what i wanted to say to her. My eyes settled on a store sign that made me smile. A safe joke - with just the right amount of ambiguity."Hey", I said. I extended my hands and held her arms. "What?", she asked. I held on."Hello? Huy! Bakit?"Finally, I let go and with a smile on my face, pointed to the McDo in-store sign. She turned from her seat and read:
"PLEASE DO NOT LEAVE YOUR VALUABLES UNATTENDED"
"Hahaha! Baliw!" she said. But she looked at me with a hint of question in her eyes.
That started our romantic journey. That she did not push me away after that pseudo-declaration gave me the courage to tell her about my feelings. I pursued her and won her. And now, seven years and countless McDonalds sundaes after, we’re getting married. A lot has happened during those seven years, but looking back, we now see that what to us was impossible was purposely orchestrated by God to make our happy-ever-after even more precious. After all, if we had known from the very start that we were for each other forever, there would certainly be no fun in that! The uncertainty, the journey, the pains we went through make our upcoming union all the more valuable.
Mark Isaiah P. David & Leah G. Samson value each other so much they vow to love each other for better or for worse on Ferbruary 23, 2008 at The Lakeshore Estate Lakeview and Lighthouse Promenade
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