Josephine Ann Necor, Batch 2007 SOLS Alumna, made the entire La Salette community very proud when the ranked 9th out of the 78,135 takers in the July 2011 Nursing Licensure Examination. Passing the board is already a big leap for such a number of examinees but Josephine took excellence to a higher level by being a topnotcher. Prior to the licensure examination, Josephine had already been inspiring her colleagues for being a consistent Deans Lister, which eventually led her to the top as she graduated receiving the Latin honor Cum Laude in Far Eastern University. Aside from being an academic achiever, Josephine is also a volunteer in Teach for the Philippines, a program that gathers the most promising young leaders to teach in public schools throughout the Philippines. After inspiring a lot of students and colleagues, last March 28, 2014, Josephine humbly went back to her High School Alma Matter to share her road to success. Below is Josephines full address: Good Morning Graduates! Good Morning to our Directress, Sr. Sonia Silverio and to our Principal, Sr. Leticia Valdez and to all the Sisters of La Salette. Good Morning to the faculty and staff, and of course to our beloved guests, the protagonists of this graduation, the parents of our graduates! First of all, I want to congratulate our Grade 6 students for a job well done. Give yourselves a round of applause for that. You are here now because you have completed all the requirements needed in finishing the elementary level. I was surprised when my former teacher, Mr. Garces, messaged me and asked me if I can be the speaker for the commencement exercise of Grade 6 students. I felt that I was not the best person to speak in front of you. Pagdating sa mga tagumpay sa buhay, marami pa akong kakaining bigas. Well, I had no choice. My name was already in the invitation. Haha. But maybe, God has a reason why I am here in front of you. I am here to share to you how I handled my life in the great challenges that I have faced. As your theme says: Hindi Natitinag ang Pusong Pilipino sa Pananalig Kay Kristo, this day must forever remind you that you, Grade 6 students, people who are matured enough to practice their faith, are Gods sons and daughters that can always go back to Him anytime. Your faith maybe shaken many times in your life, but it will never be broken if you fully entrust your life to Him. In this speech, I just want to give you four important key terms. Please remember them in your journey throughout life. Ang bigat no, throughout life. These are the things that came to my mind while I was constructing this speech. First: LEARNING EXPERIENCES - These are the things that we have experienced in the past in which we gained learning. Now that you are entering high school and leaving grade 6, I would like you to ponder on your experiences during your elementary days. You are in age 12 to 13 now. Ask yourself: What have I learned from my experiences? Napagalitan ka ba ng teacher mo noon dahil hindi ka gumawa ng project? O nagpasa ka ba ng assignment na halatang gawa ng magulang mo? Nagka-line of 7 ka ba sa card? May test ba na perfect zero ka dahil nagkabaliktad ang greater than and less than sign mo? May time ba na hindi ka nakinig sa teacher kaya hindi ka natutong mag-carry sa addition? Dont worry. Lahat ito ay naranasan ko sa elementary. Ang tawag sa kanila: learning experience. During your younger years, you should have also enjoyed your innocence because you will never get it back when you have grown up. Learning experiences, I can say, are things that are very important in life. They happen everyday in your life and the experience itself depends on how you will treat them. Noong nasa elementary ako, madami din akong kinaharap na transition. Marami akong hang-ups. Mula sa pang-hapon ay nilipat ako sa pang-umagang klase. Natatandaan ko pa kung gaano ka-stressful sa akin ito. Maaga akong gumigising para pumasok. Mula sa pagiging honor student noong kinder at grade 1, nawala ako sa Top 10 noong mga panahong ito. Parang nawalan na rin ako ng drive sa pag-aaral. Hanggang noong Grade 5, nagdesisyon ako sa sarili ko. Sinabi ko na mag-aaral na ako nang mabuti. Mataas ang grade ko pagkatapos ng grade 5. Pasok sa top pero 3rd grading na. Hindi na pwedeng humabol. Noong Grade 6 ako, patuloy lang ako na nag-aral nang mabuti hanggang sa magtapos ako bilang Top 3. From no top to top 3. Malaking improvement. Hindi na masama. Lesson: The decision really starts with yourself. You know you can do it, why not do it? Please ask that to yourselves now. I am telling you, you still have a lot of chances. You can have good experiences but you can also choose never to learn from them. When I say good experience, it doesnt only pertain to pleasurable ones but also the not pleasurable ones. We call them good because they help us become better persons. It does not focus on our faults. Whats important is the experience. God gives us unlimited chances in life, but we are the ones to decide on when to take that chance. Apply these not only to your academics but in many different aspects in your life. After this graduation, you will ask yourself: Whats in store for me in the future? Next school year, you will be in your high school already. Surely, you will acquire a lot of learning experiences in the future. The second term that I want you to remember is CHARACTER FORMATION. Your teenage years is a very important time for character formation. It is an event of developing the character which continuously happens everyday, at present. Character changes. It changes but they say that the kind of character that we form in our teenage or adolescent years will most likely be and predominantly be our character for the rest of our lives. Your next years will be your character formation years. All of you are unique individuals. You must start acquiring and developing good values and attitudes that would make up YOU as an individual. Its your choice. Its your decision. Sa high school, madadala ka sa peer pressure. May mga ayaw kang gawin pero mapipilitan kang gawin. Remember that you have your own choice and your own decision. Sa high school, mas macha-challenge ka sa mga subjects at requirements mo. Wag na wag kang susuko. When it comes to school works, dont stop when you are tired, stop when you are done. You are bigger than your problems and God is with you. Sa high school, gustung-gusto mo ng independence. Magrerebelde ka sa magulang mo. Normal yan sa teenager. Ive been there and Ive done that. Its your choice and decision on how to manage your limits, on how to balance everything. Im telling you, these are the things that most of you, if not all, would surely experience. When I was in high school, I was a consistent honor student but I was not the person who frequently gets involved in extracurricular activities. I was a good follower. I had my share of responsibilities, but I didnt have much exposure in being a leader which I somehow regretted. But I realized that it was really not a part of my personality to be too much involved, which is okay, which is not bad. People have different characters and personalities. I want you to realize that you need not to force yourself to achieve higher rewards than others. Compete with yourself, not with others. Focus on your strengths and you will be more useful and happy. Let go of what does not make you happy and move on. In the end, its your happiness and the happiness of the people around you that counts. Character formation is a long and painful process that will mold you on what you will be in the future. Will you follow everyone and disappear in the crowd or will you be unique? What are your principles in life? I should also tell you to be aware that that the most important thing for your future will be your education. Why? Because it greatly affects and influences you. You are lucky because you are sent by your parents in a school that values not only academics, but character; in a school that does not only look into your grades but to what you have contributed to the society. One of the goals of education today is learning to live together which talks about our relationships with other people. I hope that it will be instilled in each of you that we live not for ourselves but for others. I hope that everyone of you sees the meaning of life by loving others. The third term that I want to share to you is DREAM. Dreams: These are the things that we want to achieve or happen in the future. Dreams are the things that will keep us going on. What are your dreams? Pangarap kong makatapos ng pag-aaral. Pangarap kong maging nurse. Pangarap kong maging engineer. Pangarap kong maging pulis. Pangarap kong magkaroon ng uncomplicated lovelife. Pangarap kong magkaroon ng masayang pamilya. Pangarap kong magkaroon ng maraming anak. Pangarap kong kasama kang tumanda. Panagarap kong mamatay nang mapayapa. Now tell me, nauubos ba ang pangarap? Hindi. Kasi hanggat nabubuhay ang tao, may inaasam sya. I will share to you my personal experience about Dreams. Before I graduated high school, our principal called the Top 10 students in her office. I was the Top 6 of the class, and I know that I could have been the 5th if not with the weight of extracurricular activities. Its not so much of a big deal though. I know that the person deserves the slot. Then our principal said: Yung mga bumaba yung rank, may pagkakataon pa kayong bumawi.. sa college. Wow, college, another four years! Life after La Salette will be very different now. Now, I am on my own, with my learning experiences, character, and dreams. So I enrolled in FEU (Far Eastern University), in Institute of Nursing which was not actually my first love but I came to really love it along the way because its a social course meaning that you get to talk to people, to patients. It was really a fulfilling course. So, first year, I get to enter the course and I found it easy because it does not involve any major subjects. I told one of my friends while looking at the tarpaulins in the Technology Building, Tol, one day makikita mo yung mukha ko dyan, naka-display. I also have a strong liking for writing that I told myself Malalagay din ang pangalan ko sa FEU Advocate (the schools newspaper). Second year was a very big challenge to me because we started to have major subjects. The biggest issue for me then was that I needed to tie my hair into a bun, which I never do. Ever. Exams were also harder and practicums were difficult. One technique that I should I advise you. When I pray, I ask God to give me a perfect score. They say: Ask and it shall be given. If not, its okay. I also remember one of my teachers saying: Dream for the stars so that if you fall, you will still land in the clouds. Third year was a lot more challenging for me. My father passed away of liver disease abruptly after my first semester. It was the saddest part of my life. I remember that I needed to get my grades from school that day. When I got home, I took care of him. I wanted to show him my high grades but he was already too sick. I wanted to have a picture with him on my graduation day which is one year and a half from that day. But that night, he passed away. Life will really be pressing and challenging at some moments of our lives. These challenges may not come, but always be ready, for they may come. The key is to have a strong heart. Be a person with faith. You may cry at the bus. You may cry at the class. You may cry at the toilet. You may feel that you have broken dreams, but if you have trust in God, you will never have a broken faith. I continued to dream. I have reached acceptance and I went on with my studies. I always think that my parents are part of my journey of dreaming and reaching them. Third year and fourth year college passed and after a hard-fought battle, I successfully graduated with honors. I was so happy that I was able to give my mother a special seat in the PICC. We went at the cemetery after the ceremony and I know that my father was happy seeing the fruit of my hardships, his hardships. I also had to take my board exam that same year in which I had a review for two months. After intensively studying and praying, the results came out and I was top 9 out of the 78 thousand people who took the Nurse Licensure Exam on June 2011. I was so happy. Tip: Time management. Another tip: I never pressured myself. I relax and I go out when I want and needed to. It was a surprise to me because I found the exam difficult. But you know what mattered most to me? My dream when I was in 1st year college - Naipaskil ang mukha ko hindi lang sa tapat ng FEU kundi sa tapat ng PRC at La Salette. Nadyaryo ako hindi lang sa FEU Advocate kundi sa Manilla Bulletin. The best part about it was that I got the privilege to talk in front of people, fulfilling a part of my greatest dream - to inspire. Now, life continues to give me a lot of challenges. Right after that success, I wasnt able to practice immediately because of financial resources and the nurse employment issues in the country. I worked in a different field for the last two years. But I continue to dream. I am now a nurse trainee in the Lung Center of the Philippines. I just finished another sem of my masteral in nursing and I also finished another sem of my Certificate in Teaching Program. I continue to dream because I am alive, because dreaming never stops. Bottom line: Life will give you the pain. Life will give you heartaches. But if put your learning experiences and good character together, you will reach your dreams. And not because you fail to reach a dream means that your other dreams will never come into realization. Oftentimes, theres more in store for you. Lastly, dont ever forget this one on your vocabulary - GRATITUDE - your thankfulness about everything in this world. I want to thank my parents and sibling for being there all throughout. Ma and Pa, you have done so much for our family. Thank you for never letting us without baon. Thank you for your guidance. You never know how thankful I am having you in my life. I love you. I have not mentioned to you that I had a lot of resources for my college education. I want to thank my tita for providing my tuition fee in college. I also have a barangay scholarship. Thanks to the people who helped us. And I had a scholarship from CHED. I have a brief gratitude story about this. After graduation, I gave a thank you card to the CHED office as a little token of gratitude. I was so surprised with their reaction. Because of so much happiness that someone gave them a simple thank you card, they asked me to write for their publication telling my experiences and insights during college. I was very happy. I came to know that very little of their scholars come to them after graduation and thank them. Never underestimate the power of gratitude. It has a big impact on people. Thank your classmates and friends for the happy and sad experiences. Give them advance thank you for you will see them again next year. Thank your teachers. They are your second parents. They bring about the best in you. They empower you. They strengthen your potentials. To the teachers, thank your students also as I know you have learned a lot from them too. Expect the best from your students. They can be better than what they are now. Thank your school and the people behind it. Thank you sisters of La Salette and all the staff. Without your guidance, these students will not be developed into people of love. You have produced many excellent students. I know that you will continue to do same. Now, Grade 6, it is your chance to thank your parents, your financiers, for guiding you in your first stages life. Its in events like this that you get to have an excuse to thank your parents and say I love you to them. Reality: We are often afraid to say I love you, right? Why? Because we are afraid to become vulnerable. We are afraid to be labelled as weak. But you know, I realized that showing your feelings to others is not really a sign of weakness. Its actually a sign of being strong - strong enough to give your heart to anyone. Show your gratitude to your parents by studying well, not being pasaway, and being responsible. So now, I want you to stand up and face behind. Look at your parents faces and follow after me: Hi Mama/Papa, Dad/Mom, Nay/Tay, Unang-una po, salamat sa pag-desisyon na ipanganak ako sa mundong ito. Salamat sa pag-aaruga sa akin mula bata hanggang ngayong mas matanda na ako. Salamat po sa walang sawang pagsuporta sa akin. Salamat po sa baon ko araw-araw. Salamat po sa load. Salamat po sa pagpunta sa graduation ko. Salamat po dahil hindi ninyo ako pinapabayaan. Sa mga pagkakataon po na hindi tayo nagkakaintindihan, sorry po. Sorry po sa mga kasalanan ko sa inyo. Sisikapin ko pong baguhin ang aking sarili at itama ang aking mga pagkakamali. Pinapangako ko po na mag-aaral akong mabuti at tatapusin ko ang aking pag-aaral. Hindi ko po kayo bibigyan ng sakit ng ulo sa susunod na anim na taon pagka-graduate ko ng senior high school. Sisikapin ko pong maging mabuti tao sa pamayanan. Pinapangako ko po ito sa inyo sa harap ni Kristong ating Panginoon. I love you po, Nay/Tay. Okay, face in front na. I hope that you were able to say what you want to say to your parents. After this, please give them a hug and a kiss and tell them the words Thank you and I love you personally. Its your chance if you have never done that before. Kung nahihiya kayo, tell them I required it. And lastly, thank God for letting you live and experience the goodness of life. Thank Him for the love and keep the faith on Him. In all aspects your life - past, present, future, show gratitude. It is very effective in making yourself happy. I hope that you have been enlightened today. Never lose your faith as what the theme says. And always remember the key terms - to learn from experiences, to develop a good character, to continue dreaming dreams, and to always show gratitude. Again, HAPPY GRADUATION, Grade 6! Enjoy your upcoming vacation! Thank you and Good Morning!
Posted on: Mon, 31 Mar 2014 09:29:01 +0000
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