Cristina M.

Giray | SAAVS Academic Department Head | Graduation Message | Page1

After four long years of hardship, of burning the midnight candle, examinations, themes, experiments and reports, comes the day you have been longing for Graduation Day. It marks the end of high school and you go to it with mixed feelings relief, sadness, happiness, anticipation, hope... For it's really not the end but the beginning of a new world for graduates. As our hero Dr. Jose Rizal had said, "Humayo ka ngayon, papagningasin mo ang alab ng iyong isip at talino, maganda mong ngala'y ikalat sa mundo at ipagsigawan ang dangal ng tao." Dr. Rizal believed that knowledge brought power and that progress was possible only through enlightenment. He himself set the example by pursuing his studies with diligence, making use of every opportunity to absorb all the knowledge he deemed useful to him and his fellowmen. As you pass out of your high school you will become different men and women, the equal of elders in taking the responsibilities of life. With youth and freshness you can fashion your future according to your heart's desire. The degree of your success will depend much on yourselves your vision, courage and faith, and will to do and dare. Youth has a challenge. You have the task to shape new men and women out of yourselves. Graduation day has greater significance than the triumph over difficulties it gives a new born awareness of the magnitude of the work before you. You have learned many lessons from the trials of the past. Let these guide you now in the intellectual pilgrimage that lies ahead. Strengthen yourselves with virtues that will enable you to achieve your goals. Try to cultivate patience, industry, devotion to duty, honesty, faith and hope with such weapons you cannot fail. As you march forward into a new and uncertain world, carry with you the teachings and knowledge you have acquired fron your Alma Mater. In the furtherance of your education and the pursuit of your chosen careers, always have self-determination for the path is not rosy but thorny, and only those who are brave, determined, and godly survive and succeed. Who is calling the signals of your life? Do you realize that your mind is the only thing in this world that you can totally control? Master it. Don't submit your mind, which is God-given and fantastic in its possibilities, to any human being. Don't let doubts, criticisms, failures make you afraid. Persist every day, and you will achieve. In the Bible we read "Keep on asking and the gift will be given you; keep on seeking and you will find; keep on knocking and the door will open to you." That's it. If you keep on asking, keep on seeking, keep on knocking, you will surely reach your goal.
CONGRATULATIONS and MABUHAY!