Bianca Marañon delivered the salutation at the 26th UA&P Graduation Rites streamed live via Facebook on August 14, 2021.
Mr. Eric Francia, our guest speaker; Dr. Winston Padojinog, our University president; members of the Board of Trustees and Management Committee; deans and program directors of the University’s schools; faculty members and staff; parents and friends; and the graduating batch, welcome to the 26th UA&P Graduation Rites!
Dearest graduates, our journey through university life hasn’t been easy, especially the past two years. We’re not seated with our batchmates in PICC today, but I hope that that doesn’t diminish the weight of this victory for each of you. I actually entered UA&P in 2014, and didn’t expect to go on this kind of adventure: major life changes, depression, a leave of absence, and a global pandemic. Because that’s what these past 4, 5, 6, or 7 years have been for us: an adventure, a long journey bearing various loads: academic, extracurricular, physical, spiritual, emotional, or mental. Today, we have finally arrived at our destination. At long last, we are graduating. Congratulations! We made it!
If you’ve not heard this from anyone yet, I’d like to tell each of you: I’m so proud of you, and I say this with as much motherly love as I can muster. When you entered UA&P, I was already in my second or third year, making me an ate to most of you, as some of you address me. Today, I’d like to offer you both encouragement and advice from this ate who’s spent 7 years in UA&P. I think this holds true for us both today and in the years to come: “how to work” isn’t as important as “why we work” and “how to rest.”
No one can deny that we know how to work. We’ve learned how to deal with an intense academic load, extracurricular activities, and personal interests and responsibilities with grace. Each of us probably found different ways to cope. I’d like to share with you what helped me see my university journey through to the end, even if there were times I seriously doubted I could. It was finding my why. I found it in some of the rare moments of calm in the typically hectic university life: pre-COVID moments alone by the ALB pond or in Stella O and conversations with my friends in USC or CAS garden, and moments during quarantine spent journaling or taking outdoor walks when possible. In these moments of reflection, I saw my place in Philippine society as a future mother and educator. I want to guide my children and students to take to heart the importance of seeing other people as persons, and treating each person they meet with gentleness and compassion. In my darkest moments, the thought of my future children and students kept me going.
Perhaps it was also the why you have found in your years in UA&P that saw you through the difficulties you encountered, as it will in the unpredictable world of work-from-home and hybrid work that we will be entering. While your why won’t make suffering disappear, it will make it easier to bear, because it won’t be empty or meaningless. The pursuit of an ideal or a vision for your future, or love for someone, someones, or even Someone with a capital “S” will help you pull through.
“But what if I haven’t found my why yet?” you may ask me. That’s where the second thing I wish to tell you comes in. Rather than “how to work,” I hope your stay in UA&P has helped you see a much more important skill. This skill is “how to rest.” Finding my why was only possible because of the time and space I had for quiet and contemplation. Unfortunately, in the fast-paced world where the lines between labor and leisure have become blurred, these moments will be hard-won. But I think when you look back at your university life, the moments you hold closest to your heart aren’t those when time passed in a blur as you sat in class, met with groupmates to prepare for a presentation, or tried to beat those 11:59PM deadlines. We treasure moments we spent with our friends: in the hallways chatting and catching our breaths before yet another class, going for coffee runs to Dunkin’ or McDo, working together on acads or org events in the caf or a discussion room, or on Discord or Zoom. Fast forward to 10, 20, or 30 years from now, and I think the same will be true. Of course you will remember with fondness some important milestones in your career, but I think the memories you’ll consider most precious are times spent with your family at the dinner table, with a sibling, parent, or friend having deep conversations about life, with coworkers-turned-friends spending time together outside work hours.
To end, I hope these mere words from an ate who wishes the very best for each of you stays with you as you begin preparing your CVs and applying for jobs. As we do so, some of us may doubt ourselves, asking: “Are my grades high enough? Is my participation in orgs enough? Am I skilled and knowledgeable enough?” But today I want to assure you that you are enough, and that a much more important question than “What have I achieved?” is “Who am I, and who do I want to become?”
I’m sure that on a day like this there are many people for whom we’re all feeling immense gratitude. Our family, teachers, mentors, friends, and classmates have cried with us, celebrated with us, consoled us, and encouraged us until we reached the finish line. Perhaps it is in these people who have loved and supported us the most that you may be able to find your why, and it is with them that you will be able to rest. To these people without whom we could not have flourished throughout our university journey, let us express our deepest thanks. Answering the question “Who am I, and who do I want to become?” is a whole other adventure in itself, this time beyond the walls or online confines of the university, but we can all rest assured that the people who love us will walk with us along this difficult road.
I’m excited for the journey that each of you are about to embark on, and I hope each of your answers to that question will shape your years in the working world and the many years afterward. With a last and heartfelt thank you on behalf of the graduating batch of 2021 to every person who has accompanied us until this moment, I welcome you all to the 26th UA&P Graduation Rites.#
Banner photo by Gary Meulemans on Unsplash.
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