Where did your name come from?

Instead of explaining where my 3 first names came from, I would like to instead share why I opted to name my blog “No Juan is an Island” (which happens to be my Instagram and Twitter handles too.

John Donne, a seventeenth-century English author once said, “No man is an island“. In a sermon he delivered, Donne further conveyed that no one is self-sufficient; and that everyone relies on others.

An idea, I have always believed in. And so I had a little play of words with one of the words (One) in this saying, and used “Juan” instead as they sound alike. Here’s more as to why “Juan”.

I am a Filipino, and in the Philippines, the name Juan de la Cruz is is symbolically used in the country to represent the Filipino. The term, most if the time, is shortened to “Juan”, which has since time in memoriam, refers to the collective Filipino psyche. The name is a popular Spanish name for “John of the Cross”. Through the years, it has been used as a placeholder name for an anonymous Filipino individual, roughly the equivalent of the American John Doe.

Combining the idea of these two concepts — “No man is an island” and “Juan”, “Juan, just pike any human being, is wired to interact with other people. Juan needs to do so to keep him healthy in various aspects of his being being. Very aptly so, no man, no Juan is an island. No one person can survive on their own. We, people, should learn in our lifetime to accept help from others and not to isolate ourselves, for our own good and to our community. So there.

Feel free to follow me on my socials and together, let us grow amd use our platforms to inspire, educate, and fill this world with love amd kindness. Meow!