Valedictory Address for MES

Thank you.

I intended to stop at these two words, not only because I know that I might only bore you if I go on with a painfully long speech, but also because I know in my heart that these are the most important words if not the only words, that need to be said. Thank you.

Mr. _____________________, distinguished teachers, beloved parents, fellow graduates, good afternoon. We have learned many important lessons here in MES that we could carry on for the rest of our lives. Lessons of humility, sportsmanship, courtesy and friendship, it is not at all ironic that I am not enumerating mathematics, science, history amongst the things I learned, because all of us know, these are given.

At this certain age, primary school won’t teach us physics or chemistry nor will it prepare us for a career at all… However, the one thing it prepares us with is to take a step. To take a step towards life, by inspiring us, motivating us, and making us brave and strong.

Today's achievements may fade or even be forgotten. The applause may become a distant memory and our certificates and medals may gather dust on a shelf or in a drawer. But, we will always be remembered for caring enough, for helping someone, for making someone feel special and appreciated and for being the kind of person that others enjoy spending time with.

 It’s hard to imagine that the next time that we will be in a classroom; we are already in highschool, where they say a more serious learning is going to take place. But who says learning is restricted within the bounds of a classroom environment? We now live in a world, where almost everything is possible. Gone were the days of snail mails, and telephones are becoming obsolete. Gone were the days when kids our age play patintero, taguan, and other street games.

We are now in a world of endless possibilities and insurmountable opportunities, and we are to be thrown right at the middle of all of this. But every experiences were only just lessons ready to be learned, lessons that would only make us stronger and prepare us for the person we want to be.

I got scared while I was reading this year’s theme: “Your gift of learning, our tool for nation building”, it’s as if I am to carry the weight of the world on my shoulder, something that I don’t think I can ever do, by the way.  We might have been very bad people in our past life to be cursed with such great responsibility. Fear, that’s what I felt, not until this fear calm down that I felt honored and privileged to be entrusted with such vision. We could have been on the contrary, angels in our past lives, to be bestowed with such opportunity and power to do something greater than ourselves.  I believe that our school nurture as and teach us to be the person we are and help us build our character because we are an indispensable tool to the nation’s future progress.

We are indeed, the hope of our motherland, as our great hero Dr. Jose Rizal quoted. He knew that we are all liberal minds, who have great thirst for learning and immense concern for our nation. He might have foreseen, that this day would come, a day when great distractions will lead us away from this responsibility. This day came, when we have been comforted with computers and play stations that made us forget our books and street games, this day when all we can see are the possibilities and opportunities presented to us by the glittering monitors of TVs and computers rather than the opportunities of visiting a friend, going to the beach or reading a book. Is this the day that learning is limited by the things presented to us by the computer generated environment we’re living in? I say this is the day, that we will stay strong, and stay focus to our future ahead.

From now on we will be taking our talents and beliefs with us wherever we go, if we have learned anything it is that we have to be adaptable, ready to take chances and go different routes. These days we have to be ready to update our knowledge, add to our skills and be ready to cope with change, this is the challenge before us and it is one that we will all meet in our different ways. Some of us will want to stay at home; others might go to other places. Whatever we do or wherever we go we won’t forget today. Hopefully in years to come we will meet up with our friends again at our re-union.

Finally, I would like to wish my fellow graduates, fellow graduates now that has a nice ring to it doesn’t it? I would like to wish them health and happiness in the future and the satisfaction of knowing that whatever they do they will do it well. 

Congratulations to us….we did it!