Testimony from an Alumna

This is my speech during my college graduation. When I said family (in my family's story), it also meant relatives. When I said friends (in high school friends), it also meant every friend that I had from elementary to college, neighbors, and every people I've met who have become my friends even online friends and celebrities who have inspired me. When I said housemates, it meant all the people who frequently visited our house.. hehe! When I said school staffs, it includes every staff, the librarian, admin, drivers, janitors. When I said teachers, it also includes my previous teachers in highschool and elementary. Actually, when I said thank you everyone, I really thanked everyone in my life. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

When I was asked to deliver a speech for this precious moment in our lives, I got overwhelmed and excited because I’ve always wanted to share my life experiences so that people that I care for will hopefully get inspired by knowing what this person in front of you has gone through all these years. Those people are you - my fellow graduates, friends, parents, faculty and staff, guests of honors, Dr. Hall, our Honorable Commencement Speaker, ladies and gentlemen, everyone in this gathering. So to everyone that I treasure, a pleasant celebrative afternoon.

Thanking people around you in a speech is already very overused yet I would not waste this opportunity to express my grateful feeling towards everyone who walked with me through this journey in my life. To God the Almighty who always, literally, is there for me despite not being able to go every Sunday – He loves you and me unconditionally.

To this school and the teachers, this is a confession of mine in behalf of the graduates. You’ve probably heard almost all of us unstoppably complaining about the school and the staff, saying we “regretted” why we chose this school over the others despite its super expensive fees. My Alma Mater, please don’t get us wrong – this happens in all schools, even in other top universities out there. But in the end, we are sincerely taking back our words that hurt you. Those words were just blurted out of the pressure we were getting. Actually, what I can say is that these all are just “charge-to-experience” events of our lives which eventually taught us… a lot, teachings more valuable than any academic lessons. So again, thank you my beloved school for letting me study in this prestigious university for free. Personally, I’d like to thank my teachers and staff who were patient and considerate of my requests, shortcomings and for all the learnings imparted to us.

To my sponsors who are not here, who kept sending me financial aid the whole duration of my college, thank you! You could have invested what you gave me in other materials, yet you chose me to be your beneficiary.

Dear schoolmates, thanks for the quick hi’s and hello’s that we exchanged in the corridors. To my batch and classmates, thank you for “sharing” with everyone your knowledge especially when someone was in deep need. Those sleepless nights just to do group studies, go online at the middle of the night to help someone and make reports, every small and great effort, all those finally paid off. To the CRADLE for all the performances, for the brainstorming of what to perform, for the late at night practices, for giving me a chance to be part of the limelight, thank you! To the Bridge for letting me voice out my viewpoints in our school, society and life, and for accepting late contributions. To the Philippine Marketing Association team, thank you for accepting me even though I can only remember contributing pictures, giving side comments, eating the food the school provided, and praying seriously for us to get victory. To the volleyball team, especially our coach, thanks for being considerate with me not being a skilled volleybelle.

In this school, there’s this one organization that presented me one of my biggest challenges – the Computer Society of SFU. Keeping the organization alive was really hard especially that we were doing activities for the students which just consumed our mental and physical strength. Yet, my dear orgmates, thank you for staying with me under my leadership all through out. All those meant a lot to me! Keep in mind that because of what we all did, we are all leaders in our own different ways.

I just actually arrived from Butuan, Mindanao to witness a very special regional event of the Junior Philippine Computer Society. JPCS a national organization that molded me to be the leader that I am now. It tested how long I can last doing service leadership – doing things for other people without expecting anything in return. Although there were times that I almost gave up, thus committing so many mistakes, my co-officers still accepted me. And until now, we are still bonded together. I thank God for having met them all.

I’d also like to take this opportunity to thank my dearest high school friends who, although separated by universities, are still close to me and were with me during the most difficult period of my life.

To my housemates (including Marice who is now in London to study), thank you for letting me be part of our small barkada and family. Thanks for the great friendship bond, the late night sharings, trips, 7-eleven chit chats, understanding one another and for helping me with the challenges in my life. I will really miss you if we don’t get to see each other again. That won't happen, right?

To everyone, I’d like to say thank you in all the languages that I know – Kumawa, Xie xie, Arrigattou gozaimasu, Thank you, Salamat! Without you all, my life would have been sad and wasted.

Aside from all the people that surrounded me, there’s this one experience in my life that has ultimately influenced to the “me” now. Months before my elementary graduation, my family faced a challenge that we never thought will come into our lives. We were happy, normal… then my mother gave birth to my little brother who unfortunately lived for only eight days. There were complications along the process and she was comatose for six months – the hospital became our home. It was even a miracle that she came out of the hospital alive. But what happened was her brain was affected and she got paralyzed and bed-ridden. She can’t remember anything except to breath. She forgot how to speak, how to eat, how to walk, and most unfortunately, she can't recognize us – her family. We were in great pain… But still we continued to live as a family. Imagine elementary students, grade six and grade four, my sister and I, doing nurse tasks, cleaning her body waste, giving her food through a tube that runs through her nose, watching her having seizures everynow and then.. We were deeply pained. It was painful. I even secretly saw my father crying in the middle of the night. Imagine our lives as a family. Imagine my father who had to work four times as much as before, be a single parent and a husband who got his most loved wife being in a helpless state. But he did not give up, he did not leave us, we did not give up. For five years we were like that. We did not want to wake up facing the scariest moments in our lives. But unfortunately it happened, she died last last year. I can imagine how my father felt. I’m really proud of my father.He's actually there right now. (addressed the audience towards his direction) Yes, everyone can say that my family is my inspiration through all these years. I’m very grateful to you, my family!
 
We were actually in great debt, even up to now. To cope up with the financial difficulties I had during school, I tried selling electronic loads, waking up early morning despite sleeping late just to make and sell sandwiches during classes. Thanks by the way to all the people who bought from me and the teachers who allowed me to sell them during classes. I also got a part-time job where I sang in a bar and earned a few bucks. I even spent summers to do OJTs to improve my resume and at the same time earn. And also, due to this OJT, I got a part time job when I was studying during my final year. And finally, my foreign bosses absorbed me in the company and I’m now working there full time as an office administrator. To my bosses and officemates, thank you for the great trust. Thank you for even giving me special training to improve my skills. I hope that I’d be able to stay in the company for a long time and give my outmost service to you, no matter how easy or difficult the task is.

To continue the story of my family, there was this time when I saw an old man who probably would resemble my father when he gets old. (Peace, tatay, for the word!) I suddenly thought: my father at his age (not very old but a standard I set) should now be enjoying life and not be working anymore. He just actually arrived from Tacloban to witness this memorable event, borrowed money to finance the expense, and will return there on Monday. How painful, we are not together. As much as possible, I really want to own a house here in Manila so that we can be together while we are still here in planet earth. This is again one of my motivators to work harder now.

It’s the same for everyone. Your family’s situation may be different from mine, yet, they are still your leaning shoulders when no one else is around. To the parents of my fellow graduates, thank you for all your hard work for your own child. To my Tatay and my stepmom, to my sister, thank you for everything. I hope I will be able to provide us a good life soon. How I wish my mother’s able to know how I feel. To my family and to my mom, wherever you are now – this is for you! I love you more and more! I hope that my fellow graduates here will also show their love to their family before it’s too late, before everything gets out of control. Same with the parents to their children. Show you love to them because you are their inspirartion. Even with friends to friends, individual to individual. As much as possible, say simple words that can touch others’ hearts. Even just by saying sorry, saying thank you, giving a smile – that’s already showing how you treasure people around you and life in general.

Moreover, we all are here today as we were driven enough to pursue our different goals. There will be different levels of difficulties you all might encounter. Some may have simple problems, some with complex ones, some even higher level of complexity that what I had, yet overcoming all these and finally reaching your goal is all up to how you deal with them.

Now, sorry for the long wait, but I am about to end this speech of mine. Until now, I still actually feel that I am not really the right person to give any one an advice. I am just an ordinary girl who got the opportunity to speak here. Actually, anyone can be. “Live our lives the way we feel” – I always keep this in mind. For my final words, I’d like to give a quotation I read somewhere: There’s no way to happiness; yes.. there's nopoin way to happiness.. because happiness is the way. I hope that wherever you are leading to, you will put your heart into everything you do and be a good human. I am now working and I am able to see further how unhealthy our world is. I hope that everyone will be a person who will make the world a better place. As what Michael Jackson had sung “Heal the world, make it a better place for you and for me and the entire human race”. Even just by doing small steps.

Let this speech serve as an inspiration and a prayer for our betterment.

Once again, thank you and have a nice day ahead!