Greetings....

First and foremost, It is my utmost joy to give thanks to the almighty god above us for he never failed
on giving us the guidance and divine providence that we need in order to celebrate the momentous
occasion we have today. I would also love to extend my heartfelt gratitude to my ever supportive
family who have been always believing in me since day1. They always let me feel their love and
support until this vey moment. As a matter of fact, my mother requested to reschedule her
hemodialysis treatment that is supposedly today in order to attend my graduation on this very same
day. My sister takes a leave of absence from her work in naga and my superhuman 61 year old father
drove his small motorcycle yesterday to fetch my sister in naga and bring her here earlier this day. I
really appreciate your effort guys! And for all the families who are here feeling proud of the
achievement that their father, mother, brother, sister, son and daughter get, in behalf of my fellow
students, an unparalleled thank you to each and everyone of you for sharing your time with us, your
loved ones, and making this event very special to us graduates.

A very big yes! Yehey, at last I am here, those are likely the words that my dear batchmates,
classmates and school friends have in mind before and after this ceremony. After four years of
studying, staying late at night reviewing for exams, traveling from home to school and vice versa,
doing assignments and projects, participating in school activities, listening to the advices and rants of
the instructors, tiring preparations for the events and occassions, well! On behalf of you guys, I'm
really glad to say, Yes, Yehey, at last we are here. However, these things are just some parts of the
concerns and responsibilities of the students. I vividly remember, way back in 2017, I was then
working at a motorcycle company when I decided to went back to school because of the news I've
heard about the universal access to quality tertiary education in state universities and colleges (SUCs)
and local universities and colleges (LUCs).However, that was also the time when the old curriculum in
all Higher Education Institutions were revised into new ones by the Commission of Higher Education
as their inevitable response to the domino effect of K to 12 System of Education in all DepEd
accredited schools. I prepared all the transfer documents from my previous private university in naga
and went to PSU Goa because I had known that they were still accepting enrollees for my previous
course which was Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering but would depend on the number of
enrollees which was at least 15 students. I enrolled on other course while waiting for my previous
course to open. Unfortunately, it didn't open due to the lack of enrollees. it was then I decided to
continue the course that I was enrolled with. I thought the universal access to free tertiary education
would ultimately answer and be enough to cease my financial struggles in studying in college but i
turned out to be wrong. That was a huge help but other expenses like boarding house and food
allowance were also the primary concerns that I had to deal with considering that my mother was just
recovering at that time from a hospitalization due to a heart attack, my father couldn't work because
he was taking care of my mother, and my two siblings were just started their jobs and supported my
mother's medicine maintenance and my parents' needs. Frustrations and hopelessness prevailed In
my subconscious which was also augmented by my reduced interest of continuing my course. To make
the story short, after I survived my one year at PSU Goa, I finally decided to went back to work so
that I can help in providing the needs of my parents financially. I went home here at garchitorena and
stayed here for a while before I apply again to work maybe in Naga, Manila or even abroad. While I
was helping on the term here in bicol "paglukad" my aunt told me that GMEVCC started to operate
and accepting enrollees for the academic year 2018-2019. I was somehow kind of happy because I
remembered that I worked for a month or two in constructing the foundations of the school building
in 2015 before I worked in Naga. I never imagined that I became an instrument in constructing the
building that would serve its purpose for me. When I got home, I told my parents about it then had
them inquired about enrolling in GMEVCC. I was hesitant at first because honestly, I know if not most,
some of you here at least thought about " pwede na yan" or " itry ko daw" or the term" at least
makaklase" because of the only two courses offered to choose from. And because of the approval
and motivation that I got from my family who never doubted my capabilities that I can be here with
you today I took my first step. And as I progressed, while I stayed longer and longer in my course, I
realized that no matter what the course you are taking, as long as you have the will to help your
family and love helping other people, you will start to love and embrace the profession that you
pursue. In the end, it would seem that you didn't pick the course but the latter chose you.

We all know that being a student is quite challenging, but what's even more challenging was the
difficulties that us pioneers faced knowing that all we had to accomplish must be helpful and must set
a good threshold for the succeeding students after us. We have here different roles in our households
and community. We have some parents and even single parents here, self-supporting students who
have single to multiple sideline jobs, leaders and members of different out-of- school organizations,
bread winners and ordinary students who just want to make their loved ones proud. I am amazed to
know that despite of the busy lives that most of us here experienced outside the school premises,
most of us managed to give not only our spare time but most of it for the sake of learning and
achieving our goals and dreams that were once out of reach. We even sacrificed things that maybe
precious to us but we never lost courage and we continued our endeavor to finished what we have
started.

But when all things were slowly getting smoothly and somehow manageable ,there came the
pandemic. As we all know, the dawn of the pandemic brought massive changes all over the world.
There were lots of uncertainties in our lives and probably most of students here wondered and feared
about their dreams and the better future of their families. Fortunately, the cure has been discovered
but repairing the caused damages has been a long process. The back-to-school with distance learning
system were both have good and bad sides. Aside from the challenges of the distance learning,
personal and family problems have arisen. I take my own experience for example, amidst the
pandemic my mother was again hospitalized because she was diagnosed to have a kidney failure and
the only resort to better her condition was to have her undergo hemodialysis treatment twice a week.
We started to have debts in a hospital and have been going to different charitable government
agencies to support my mother's treatment. I almost quitted school that time and then again decided
to work abroad. But god is good and we somehow managed to get the expense on her treatment in
whatever way we can. Although I can't say here all of your struggles during the pand emic, we all know
that these things made us the person we are today and the most important thing is all of us here never
gave up no matter what was came in our way going here.
In our theme, " Reselient Graduates:. Striving and Excelling as Shapers of a Post Pandemic future," we
just proved that with the expected and unknown risks and undertaking that we have faced, we
stumbled and cried, we encountered tremendous trials that almost loosened our grip from believing
in ourselves that we can attain our ambition in life, in the darkest times of our lives, we still looked
forward and persevered in many ways to find the light we may barely or may not see at the end of
the tunnel.. And now here we are, we strived and excelled,, holding the light of hope that we utilize
to have a vision in shaping the post pandemic future.

In behalf of all the graduates, I would like to take this opportunity to wholeheartedly thank honorable
governor Luigi Villafuerte and his family especially congressman migz Villafuerte. We didn't have to go
on other places to learn, have a degree and become professionals but you brought and delivered us
the facility and people to make this all achievable with much reduced burdens for all of us
garchitoreneans. To honorable mayor Leda san Luis, we also thank you for taking part in this special
moment of our student life. As a mother of our town, we will rely on your efforts and supports in
helping our school realize it's mission and vision for the betterment of our community. To our college
administrator, Ms. Susy C. Martirez, College Dean of BSAB, Ms. Marilyn Aspe , College Dean of BTVTEd
Ms. Clemecia C Agawa, Program Head of CHS Engr. Randy Azañes and all teaching and non-teaching
staffs of GMEVCC-Garchitorena, your dedicated time and efforts in helping and guiding us to be here
will be much appreciated and cherished wherever we will go. A deepest and sincerest gratitude to all
of you. And for all who came here today, to the visitors, spectators, parents, my fellow graduates and
all the people who participated to make this event a success, once again, a pleasant and blessed
evening to each and everyone of you!