I Graduated from College!
April 01, 2017
I finally graduated from college!
After four years of stress, I'm finally done and I'm finally going to a place with more stress, hahaha.
Yesterday was my graduation day and I could not say any words to describe how I feel about graduating. I have mixed feelings of excitement, sadness, and fear. It's just unexplainable.
Anyway, I'd like to share my graduation speech that I delivered yesterday. I'm really glad that my audience had a great reaction towards my speech. Thank you!
Graduation Speech
Joyce Hyacinth Pacaldo
Joyce Hyacinth Pacaldo
To the school president, the board of trustees, the dean of college, faculty and staff, parents, guests and my fellow graduates, good afternoon.
I am much honored to stand in front of you today to represent the graduating class of 2017 and deliver my graduation speech. I know I am not the brightest, the smartest or the best in this bunch. Mr. Englebert Andag got a flat 4 in Algebra, I only got 3.25. Ms. Mikaela Navidad’s English is levels higher than mine and Ms. Perla Ledesma’s Nihongo is more すごい than my Nihongo. So to the people who chose me as class valedictorian, what were you thinking?! Joke. Seriously, thank you very much, from the very bottom of my heart. I’m very happy that my efforts, my talents and abilities are recognized.
I really had a hard time making this speech for I do not know what to say. I don’t want to say super cheesy things or give advices I am wildly unqualified to give. Until Wednesday, I only wrote the “good afternoon” part of the speech.
So let me start this speech with a small informal survey to my fellow graduates. I will be asking questions and if your answer is “me” please raise your hand.
1. Who has tried doing “teamwork” in one or more tests and quizzes we had in MKD?
2. Who has tried “taking a break” or “resting” from a class and going somewhere to “chill”?
3. Who has tried saying this line during reportings, “Maam, na-corrupt ang akoang flash drive, pwede next meeting nalang ko magreport?”
4. Who has, even once said this line, “Nganong guba napod among aircon sa classroom?”
5. Who has been stressed last year during the thesis writing and prayed so hard to God that everything will end soon?
6. Who has fallen in love and has been broken hearted in college?
7. Who is proud of himself or herself today?
Thank you for your honesty, my fellow graduates.
Today is our last day as students of MKD. Tomorrow, we will be unemployed – joke. Tomorrow, we are set to go to different paths. All of us can look back to our school years and feel a broad range of wild emotions. We will always remember the morning singing sessions in Sir J’s psychology and philosophy class, Maam Ang-Ug’s Statistics, Edgar of the CDEV class, are some of the many things that we will always remember and make us smile.
Seeking out the things we have learned is not just a matter of looking at how well we performed in class by checking our grades. We have not only learned about finding x, Japanese, kanji, Rizal’s life story and etcetera, etcetera.
From the hard exams and quizzes, we have learned that we are never alone during hard times. There are always people who will help us. No man is an island, they say. We have also learned about the true value of honesty. From the classes we have not attended and excuses we have made, we have learned about the importance of owning our own responsibilities and being held responsible for our actions. From the complaints we made, we learned about our own importance and striving hard to get the things we deserve. From the stressful thesis and other projects, we have learned that all hardships will not last; we can survive and be better versions of ourselves afterwards. From the heart breaks, we have learned to love ourselves more.
We have learned a lot of important things from all the little things we have done and experienced while we were in MKD. In these 4 years of long winding journey, we have learned about important values, feelings and emotions. We also have learned about friendship, love, courage, honesty, loyalty, and other life’s important treasures that we will need in our next journeys.
My fellow graduates, I know that many of us have been asking and telling ourselves, “Asa man ko manarbaho uy!” “Magminyo nalang kog hapon nga dato Japanese studies bitaw major nako.” “Jusko, asa man ko puniton ani uy.” “Apply nalang ko sa Nihongo Center tapad me ni Inoue sensei” “Lord tabang intawun.”If you ask our very own, Mr. Vince Barnes, he will say “Mag factory ta Joyce, mag butang ug taklob sa mineral water.” Most of us can relate to this. I am anxious about my future and I know I am not alone.
Life after graduation is an uncertain thing. Many of us are clueless about where to work and what to do and many of us are scared of what will happen to us after today. They say that life is a real life version of The Hunger Games – may the odds be ever in your favor.
We have laid out plans for ourselves like being CEOs, becoming millionaires, buying the biggest house and a car, marrying the hottest chick or guy in town, travelling the world and living happily ever after. Plans like those are good but we must bear in mind that life does not always follow the plans we lay out for ourselves. We will experience highs and lows, easy and difficult times and unfortunately, sometimes, there will be more difficult times than that of the easy times. When we take our first job, chances are we won’t be CEO’s, we will be at the bottom of the pyramid making coffee and we won’t be earning millions. The hottest guy or chick in town might be taken but not by any of us, unfortunately. Our happily ever after might not come immediately after graduation, or worst, might never come – God forbid.
Our plans might not be followed as we laid them out and as we wanted them to be immediately - right here, right now, but do not worry because that is totally okay. The important thing is that we are on our way to a better and more promising future, and we have taken the first key steps. It will be hard for us, but I know that we will eventually reach there.
Let us take for example the story and experience of one of my good friends here – Ms. Mariel Lazaro. I have always been amazed of her story. She has been through a whole lot of pain, hardships and challenges that we are not going to enumerate one by one because we won’t finish today, to reach this day and be here with us today. But despite all of those, with the help of her friends and loved ones, she managed to rise above everything she experienced and have a smile in her face today. I really find it amazing.
Like Mariel and every one of us here, we will face so many challenges and hardships from now on. However, from every challenge, every hardship and every obstacle, we will learn new things, we will grow as a person and we will be better versions of ourselves. It is the painful feelings that will awaken us to how alive we are and how deeply we can feel, it is the hardships that will teach us about our own strengths and weaknesses, it is through disappointing ourselves and other people that we learn to accept our own limitations, and it is through the challenges we learn to rise and be stronger, bolder and braver. Every class we have taken, every class we have cut, every project, assignment and paper we submitted, every kanji we memorized and forgot, everything we learned at school, they have been preparing us to adapt to changes and challenges that we will face and to rise above them. We don’t have to worry about facing the hardships in life – we can do it.
And of course we cannot do it alone. We will need a support system. So today, we must acknowledge those who helped make our college experience possible. Today, as we prepare to move forward, we have to thank God, our parents, families, friends, teachers and all the people who have encouraged and supported us throughout the years. Personally, I’d like to extend my gratitude to my mama and papa, and baby brother, to my friends, my thesis adviser, Maam Lav, Sir J, Mr. competitive, for all the help and encouragement, my favorite staff, Sir Gerry and to all my other teachers and staff of the school who encouraged and supported me, thank you. I’d also like to extend my gratitude to Philippine Nikkei Jin Kai for giving me education for more than half of my life and helping me grow to be who I am today. Thank you! Please continue to support us in our new endeavors.
Tomorrow we are set to start our new lives. There is an almost infinite choice available to us but we need to find our OWN path and we have to take it. We take our own path. It is normal to be scared and anxious. It is a good thing because that means we are thinking and planning about what to do next. I hope everyone will follow their passion – and according to our very own, Mr. Daniel Ulanday, “passion” is a thing you are passionate about; things you really want.
Let us find the people, places, career and further areas of studies that we are passionate about. Let us keep our smiles and commit ourselves to the things we are passionate about and the challenges of making it happen.
To close my speech, I would like to share a Chinese quote from a famous Chinese novelist, that a good friend translated to Japanese for me.
「うしろをふり向く必要はない。あなたの前には、いくらでも道があるのだから。」
Thank you, congratulations and goodbye.
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