'Mum, I made it'

Monday, August 2, 2021

 


Hey. It is so nice to be back here. It has been months since my last update and that absence can be attributed to my day job. This is not complaining of course. I am thankful that I get to have my job when some others were not given the chance due to the pandemic. 


Am I the only one still including the pandemic in the equation when it should just be completely scrapped since we should be used to it by now? But hey, as long as it's still there and I wish it will completely go away, new variants and all, for good, this will always be part of the conversation. 


I am finally sinovaxxed and even if the fear still grips, it helped a lot in managing my pandemic anxieties. Of course I am still as praning as before but I can totally lose the double masks when I am commingling with friends who are also fully vaccinated. So if you read this and you are not inoculated yet, you owe it to your family, friends and the society in general to have yourself jabbed. It is no longer your freedom to choose. It is your responsibility as a citizen of this country. 


Anyways, this post should be all about my thrill when my former alma mater contacted me in my hustle and bustle that I will be this year's commencement speaker! Technically, my favorite dean invited me before this craziness but as all things go, these are the things that you really couldn't prepare for. But did it stop me from delivering my speech virtually? Not a chance! This is my ' Mum, I made it' realness and I want it to be as memorable! 


I am enclosing here the content of my speech. This, by the way, will not be possible without my co-teachers who assisted me with the backdrop, with my very light makeup, with the taping and recording and the cheer! 


Thank you to my greatest influence Sir Ike Arevalo for that introduction. If you are wondering why Sir Ike is the greatest, look no further than my published stories here and abroad. Of course back in high school, I have the equally great Amor Villamor to thank for seeing something in me that he made me the literary editor of The Hilltop, but it was Sir Ike who pruned my rhetorical edges and created a masterpiece out of me, he lent his light on me so I may shine on my own and yes critique the bejezzus out of me so it is expected that I’ll turn out excellent outputs every single time.  He’s probably correcting now my next words later and I will not mind at all. When people call me eloquent and articulate, it’s 4 years of craving and seeking for his tough love and I love him for it. So it’s a thrill to be introduced by him. 

 

But there is no greater thrill than to speak virtually to the graduating class of 2021 which is so unique everybody will be talking about it in the post-pandemic discourses. But this is a dream realized, a tick off a bucketlist, my ‘mum, I made it’.

 

To the President, the distinguished member of the Board of Trustees, and the Dean of College of Education, the graduates and their beaming parents, good morning or good afternoon. 

 

Kalipay-lipay ko gayud kay naconsidera ako san Liceo na maghatag inspirasyon sa mga bag-o na graduates. Let me backtrack a bit. I graduated as an English major last 2008 without Latin honors which makes me more relatable I guess. It’s a proof that although a laude distinction is something that you wear like a red badge of courage, it will only help you so little when you face the terrifyingly real world out there. What might propel you to elevation is the goodness of your character which will never be out of style. But do not lose your natural wit, your intelligences because nothing screams unstoppable than humility and wisdom honed from years of diligence, of reading, if you are like me and thinking that no matter what life throws at you, you are built to win. But I am not discrediting the work of those who really excelled academically, I mean what an achievement, thank you for honoring your parents and yourself.

 

Yes, I am one of your own. We are forever intertwined because we share the same school and looking back now when some of my students here in Antipolo thought I graduated from Ateneo, it is with certain pride that I tell them that I graduated from Liceo de San Jacinto Foundation Incorporated and no matter where opportunity takes me, I know I have to keep my school proud, because it is something that’s embedded in my DNA and I hope you’ll also do that. When you visit my Facebook account that I created a year after I graduated, I never edited out Liceo because why would I? 

 

Maybe you were hesitant starting out in Liceo because you dream to go to cosmopolitan places like Legaspi or Manila kay katahom baga na iba naman an atun guinlalakatan but when you decided to stay in San Jacinto is probably the greatest decision that you made. There will be people who look down upon us because probably outside of Masbate, nobody knows where Liceo is but give them the links of our track records, our outstanding graduates who are now worthy of emulation, the faculty and staff who I think the nuts and bolts of successes yet to come. You are in the right place at the right time. 

 

But let me tell you something: you are the bravest, most valiant graduates to ever grace this ceremony because the pandemic did not stop you from ever pushing to the limits even if sometimes the limits do not exist. Can graduates that come before you can claim to have overturned cumbersome events into chances of opportunity? I guess not. This happened to this batch because you are made to survive the harshest of circumstances. You are all indefatigable. Neither contagion nor zombie apocalypse can even stand a chance. Remind yourself this when you feel that the world is closing in on you: I’m a pandemic graduate, I have a reason to believe that I am made of steel. 

 

Let me pay homage to the teachers who built me from the ground up: Sir Ike Arevalo, Sir Amor Villamor, Dr. Penelope Bagobe, the much-missed Miss Flordeliza Dilao who taught me to intone to higher being Cleanse my Lips whenever I am speaking before a large crowd, Mr. Arnel Baruelo, Atty. Junil Bailon and so many more I may have forgotten by name, but their seismic impacts remain rooted to my very core. 

 

And to my friends who made my 4 years in Liceo one for the books, you know who you are. I will always remember the Fridays where we dressed up to the nines because we redefined TGIFs and all the kookiness that go with it. 

 

I wish my grandparents could see this because I know this will make them happy. 

 

To the graduating class of 2021, soar higher than your wings could reach, but do not lose sight of the shore. 

 

I am Ryan Leyco Faura, a Bachelor of Secondary Education Major in English Graduate, a Licensed Professional Teacher in SDO- Antipolo City, a published author and forever proud Licean. 

 

Thank you! 

  

*The accompanying video shall be updated after the ceremony*


From the words of my favorite RuPaul, I hope this will light a fire under you a** so you'll always choose excellence, remember where you came from and hope the best-- and work hard to achieve it-- to where you are going. 


Congratulations to the graduates of Liceo de San Jacinto Foundation Incorporated. May all your dreams come true! 




Xoxo


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