So, why is my name PeñaRUNzi?

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Just like man, my name also underwent an evolution.

My pet name, as you may have observed, is a mishmash of my surname, Peñaredondo (my father is from Camarines Sur, Philippines), the verb "run", and the French word “paparazzo.”

It’s not really a long story. There’s nothing grand about it as well.

One Saturday at work, I found my male friends (they are all in the IT Department of the company. They collectively call themselves MISTeam) walking from the cafeteria. They were walking side by side. I saw a vision: they were like boybands of the 90's. At that moment, I told myself that I had to capture that time. So armed with my cellphone camera, I took a shot (with a smirk on my face).

"Hey! Why are you taking our picture?" they said.

With that, I ran away. The smirk became a smile.

When they finally got a hold of me (I strangled. But I surrendered after a few minutes when they promised not to hurt me as long as I will order a pizza for their lunch), they saw the picture. The IT Head (he’s one of them; let's call him Sky) said, “That shot was good. You’re like a paparazzo. I’ll call you Peñarazzi from now on.”

They loved the name, too. That was good; they forgot the pizza.

And so I have used the name every now and then. I even named my occasional article Peñarazzi, with issues released every time I am the one assigned to share about the value of the week (a part of our weekly morning assembly).

Years passed and I continued to hold on to the name (it sounded Hollywood to me).

Then, I found running.

One fine day, one of my runner friends (let’s call him Michigan Runner) sent me an SMS. I forgot what was the SMS all about, but he called me “PeñaRUNzi.”

Wow. The word “run” had been added.

I guess I have too many creative friends.

And you see, it's not really a long grand story.

But it still sounded Hollywood to me.