Joepi Paloma
I knew her as Florence Chua. We were classmates in high school. We were never that close but I remember always envying her adventures. In my mind she was like Eliza Thornberry of The Wild Thornberrys, a Nickelodeon TV show back in the 90’s. I heard stories about her dad, who was a great photographer, and about the elephant that they love so much. The show also had a movie in 2002 and this was the cover…
Apart from being the adventurous little girl with a lot of spunk and a lot of stories to share, she helped me figure out what being an individual and being your TRUE self meant. In her own ways, she lived and showed us girls what it was like to really “DO YOU”.
When we were in first year high school, there were 2 Joanna’s in the class. Me, Joanna Paloma, and Joanna Poblador. So as you can probably guess, there were a lot of confusing moments in class and us two Joannas were trying to figure out how we can deal with this name game. Florence made it happen for us. In one of our school retreats, she gave me a letter which changed my life forever. It wasn’t really the note itself, but the name she put on it. She spelled my name “JOEPI” (vs the usual standard “Jo P. ” that everyone had started calling me vs Joanna.) She said it’s JOE because I like Joe McIntyre from New Kids on the Block. And it stuck… for good, and I am forever grateful for it. I grew up with a unique nickname that I loved and to this day I use it — except in Starbucks when I get coffee because they almost always turn it into something else (Jofy Jopay Sofie Jofie Jiffy Zoevi…)
Thank you, Kathy Florence Chua for my name. Thank you for helping me be ME.