A Message from Ivy and Lala
(text
from the invitation to the Soft Opening of Arroz Sorcieres, November 18, 2005)
It is with great pride that we announce the opening of Arroz
Sorciéres, the culmination of a whole year’s worth of brainstorming, planning, & hard work.
For those of you who know us well, it must have come as a surprise
that we have undertaken such a big challenge without so much of a warning. It may even be considered a hasty move on our part.
It has however been a dream of ours since our early college days to someday become entrepreneurs. This dream was put on hold
for a while when we tried to look for our own identity & purpose. The journey towards self-fulfillment and understanding
of philosophical and theological truths took precedence. We have been tested in our separate personal lives…but we survived,
with battle scars to show for every fight. Through it all, despite insanity almost taking hold, one thing never changed: the
friendship we shared remained the one flicker of light in the darkest of nights.
That is why when the opportunity presented itself, we knew that
we had to grab it. Lack of experience and considerable risks aside, we know that we could handle whatever may come our way…because
we have each other.
It is perhaps easier to do nothing and not fail at anything, but
we refuse to succumb to a life of mediocrity. We would much rather prefer to fall flat on our faces than never to have tried.
We understand that there are those who want to see us fail. But we are not bothered. We are now much stronger, and to our
critics – “bring it on!”
As much as we would like to think we did this by ourselves, there
are a number of people who have been our source of unrelenting support and encouragement, without whom we would have not have
accomplished this feat:
-
Mrs. Corazon-Tungol Ramsey, Mr. David Ramsey, the Vera family,
Mrs. Mercedes Santos, and Mr. Zoilo Santos for believing in us and encouraging us to believe in ourselves. For the freedom
to dream, and most of all for letting us grow and find ourselves on our own.
-
Ate Michelle Vera, for her generous contribution of time, effort,
& creativity. We could not have done this without you.
-
Mrs. Alvina Vera, for lending us her expertise in the culinary
arts.
-
PAPKians, for being constant fixtures in this bizarre world of
changes.
Arroz is not just our first business venture. More than anything
else, it is a symbol of a dream fulfilled and has come to represent a friendship that has stood the test of time. It is a
labor of love, a token of hope, and a symbol of independence and strength against unfavorable odds.
We would like to share this very special occasion with you, and
we hope you can join us to celebrate the Blessing and Ribbon Cutting of our humble restaurant. We are also counting on your
continuous support that we may come to see success in our first “grown up” project together. In the meantime,
we hope you have a good time!
Sincerely,
Ivy and Lala
