[[ FF: HANNAH MAE "TIFFANY GRACE" LUENGAS SUAZO ]]

        

           Fact is I have a lot of best friends. I have introduced to you Rashid Pandi, my uber cerebral best guy friend, last month.  And I have promised to be featuring my friends in this blog in a section called FF or featured friend.

          This month, I am proud to introduce Hannah Mae Suazo, or Tiffany Grace. I am not really sure bout that Tiffany Grace thing. One afternoon , I helped her cut letters of her name out of old Preview magazines and said I include Tiffany Grace. It is her fave name, I suppose. As I said, I have a lot of best friends, around 5% of all my friends(in the general and most biblical sense of the word friend) I consider besties. So why do I feature Yanatot this month instead of my other besties?

          Because she is different. (I hope I don't incite jealousy hare. :DD )

          Numero uno, she is a Christian. The only one in my usual crowd with that faith. Having been raised in a very sheltered environment where 99.99% of the people I mingle with share the same faith with me--Islam--it is kind of improbable that I can have that level of closeness to someone having very different belief from me. That alone makes her different in my world.

          Numero dos, we became friend through a different circumstance. She knew me before I even knew she existed. Yeah, I was kind of famous in the bio department. I was an alien to them that time, being fresh out of the college of engineering and just shifted to BS Zoology. Naturally, I was under the microscope for some time, not to mention that I have a reputation that ignites controversy. She said she can't forget that time when we were in the same class-Physics-and I was the girl who is always tardy if not absent yet aces all the exams and seemed to be unaware of the presence of her classmates. The truth is, I really don't care who sits beside or behind me in class. That explains my aloof attitude. So Yanna, the other popular girl was sort of irritated. I bet the first emotion she felt towards me leans to the negative side.

          Look at her photo, isn't she beautiful? I think so too. That face of her and winning personality of hers started our bond. She was a candidate in the Ms. CNSM, an annual beauty pageant in our college that is part of the science week celebration. That day was their photo shoot for publicity purposes. She was having some dilemma and I don't know exactly what happened but what I remember is that I helped her during the shoot and I was even the one who took her beauty shot. Our contact didn't stop there, I was always around during their rehearsals because I was the one of the hosts of the pageant. Her bubbly personality won me over. I liked her instantly. Her sunny disposition and quick wit is viral. She is very sociable but doesn't stoop down to the level of the gossipers. We'd rather talk about ideas than about the latest juicy stories in the campus.

          We were inseparable even after the pageant.

          It is unusual to see besties like us. One look at us together and you'll see how different we are. I am always dressed very modestly while she gets away with her sexy outfits. While my head is covered with a scarf, she sashays in her sundress. My fondest memories of her are when we rock the hallways. I mean it. It takes a great self-restraint to avoid turning head to see us. I don't know what's with our "rampage", our term for rampa. Lock jaw sila. :))

          Do we talk about religion? Yes. A lot. We discuss it often not to argue about which is which but to understand better. She will say,"Gurl, kasi sa amin, ganito…" And I'll say,"Ah kaya pala Gurl… kasi diba sa amin…" "Yun yun man!"

          Above all, she's the kind of bestie I am a hundred percent sure will be there when I'm up or I'm down. Hanna Gurl, you know I couldn't make it without you. Truth is, several months ago, I was stuck in a dark pit, everything that has been going for me; academics, extra-curricular, inter-personal relationships; was on the rocks. I lost everything. I couldn't get everything right again if not for that night you told me to entrust God Who I call Allah all that I carry on my already tired back. To stop being too hard on myself. Because nothing is impossible for Him. And He loves me too much. And when I ask, He will respond. And everything will be alright.

Things I want you to know about Hannah:

She loves to read fiction. She's not just a pretty face, she carries something heavy inside her skull.

Have I mentioned she too is a soon-to-be doctor?

She can drive a motorbike to hell and back.

When she sings, she sounds like Mariah minus the birit.

She eats food in weird combos, like Magic Chips and Choco Mucho simultaneously.

She is single (wink)