as a 2010 INHS JS guest speaker

2010 INHS JS Promenade Message
By Hegel Ruiz

Distinguished and admirable Principal of our much loved Alma Mater, Mr. Alfredo A. Tabuso, our beloved mentors specially to our then very good advisers, my dear seniors and juniors of schoolyear 2009-2010, the very cause of having me here tonight, dear parents who came to witness their child’s prom night/ students, friends, ladies and gentlemen, a pleasant evening!

Barely seven and six years ago, I was exactly at your position, dreaming of a wonderful and memorable night. And I tell you, it was indeed a wonderful evening. I know that your class lessons this week that your teachers so lovingly taught you, only passed from one ear to another, and every afternoon, even though you know that ma’am Ruiz, ma’am Barsana, sir Acaya and sir Castaño are probably going to raise their voices because you won’t listen to their instructions, I know that you always anticipate the 5:00 call time for JS rehearsal because you were excited enough for tonight’s events. My dear juniors and seniors, am I not right? Is not this evening the most awaited night especially to those who are eyeing to dance with their crushes?

Before everything else I want to congratulate the juniors and seniors for pulling off this memorable event, I remembered us being the first to celebrate prom at the INHS quadrangle, and you, you are having it here at the municipal plaza, this is a grand turnaround of events. Congratulations every one! This is a proof that INHS is a work in progress. It develops in time, yet it maintains its values.
My dear Seniors and Juniors, Highschool is our building block to our dream future, to the relationships that we go through and to the real world. If we do good during our highschool days, there’s a good chance we will be great contributors to our country. This time in your lives can be the indicator to what you will become. So if you want to be great someday, might as well start it early.

But the road to success is not easy I must tell you. You might face failures and disappointments along the way but the important thing is to not give up, to never give up. I will share you some principles that had brought me to where I am today and I hope it will bring you to the place you want yourself to be someday.
The first one, (the challenge behind the word wisdom) is Virtue: I know we always hear wisdom but virtue, rarely. Wisdom or knowing the right thing to do is already imbedded to all of us. All of us have wisdom. That sash that the valedictorian is supposed to wear during the field day cadena de amor is a symbol, and it doesn’t mean that only her has the wisdom, we all have, wisdom as I say is knowing the right thing to do, and we have that as a God given gift. The bigger challenge behind wisdom is virtue, not everyone has the virtue or the will to do what we know is right. Virtue is making ourselves act and do things. Without virtue, we can never really say that there is learning. It is like knowing our class rules, our teacher’s rules, but we cannot follow because we cannot make ourselves follow. So I challenge you, make things happen. Do not just know which is right and wrong… apply it, make the change that you want to be, chase your dreams, do not wait for it to present itself in front of you without doing anything because it wont, make it happen!
I kind of learned virtue in both the easy and hard ways. When I was in College, I once had a 7am class, and in the city, that means you have to stand up at 5am even though you slept at 2am or not slept at all because of reviewing only to arrive at your classroom on time. For someone who loves the bed, it makes me want to throw the alarm clock every time so I locate the alarm clock far enough so I will have to walk to reach it and by the time I reached it, I am already awake, and if not.. I rush to the bathroom and pour water onto my head. And in the long run, it did me good because I did not have a single absent in that class and I gained more than the others. Now that is just the easy part, the harder part for me, is realizing that in college, I have to rely 90% on myself to finish my studies. There will be no mother to finish my gantsilyo project, or to re lecture to me math lessons I simply did not listen to in class, no Ma’am Cabalce to instruct me on the next steps to do regarding leadership, no Ma’am Gecha to check if the batch is still on track or we loss our way... only then did I started making my weekly goals and post it on my door and thinking endlessly of the what if’s if I won’t meet that goal. My dear Juniors and Seniors, this is also to say that discipline is the brother of virtue. Discipline puts you on the right track and even though it sometimes requires sacrifice, the fruit of discipline is sweet and rewarding.

In highschool, we faced a lot of disciplining, and for those who haven’t deciphered it yet, it also includes when your adviser says, pag di kayo naglinya wag na kaung sumali or when Ma’am Cabalce will say, o pag wala ng sasayaw itigil na natin. From simple listening to instruction, to following what’s being asked to actually doing it. We’re lucky in high school because we have our dear teachers who will guide us every day. In college as I painfully realized, we pretty much rely on ourselves. Looking at the big picture, we do not wait for instructions from advisers anymore. This is when virtue and discipline will be the major actors in our decision making. It is when we will decide for ourselves and become liable to those decisions. My dear Students especially the seniors I hope you come to school to help yourselves learn more and gain more. I know one quote displayed in your classroom that says “Learning is not attained by chance, it must be attended with diligence. That means we have to work to be able to gain. Success is better when we worked hard for it. take my word for that.

The second one is very simple, to be Happy. My dear juniors and seniors, you have to remember that when you have stopped being happy, you also have stopped living. Success is not measured by merely graduating and getting the best job in town, success does not only mean you graduated in top honors and enrolled in the best school (although they are good contributors). Success also depends upon your happiness, contentment and the benefits that others gained from your success. So determine what makes you happy and stick with it. Happiness may not necessarily correspond to the logical things to do. Happiness may not be read in books, it is subjective and felt truly by you. I made my decision to work here in our province long before I graduated that is because I know I will be happy here. Sometimes what determines your happiness is not what people tell you, you must do. It is knowing what you love the most and pursuing it. In college, there will be student organizations in your school/campus that will offer different types of learning activities, believing in the fact that learning is not confined in the four corners of the classroom… I urge you to join the organization that will interest you. You can join an academic org and organize trainings for your schoolmates or be a volunteer and help teach the deprived or rather be a performer and show your talents and skills. Do not be afraid to learn. But still this is if it will not bother your studies. Remember it is our primary duty, for our parents and for ourselves to finish our education on time. Yet it is also great to maximize learning. In high school it is also known as the extracurricular activities, I know very good dancers, singers, athletes and leaders from your group, enhance and share your skills, wag niyong ipagdadamot ang kakayahan nio ha. You are lucky to have deciphered where you are good at and I hope you will also be patient in being the instrument for others in their process of discovering their potentials.

Being appreciative and a positive thinker is also an add-on to happiness. When we see the good in people instead of their wrong, if we learn to acknowledge even the tiniest blessings, and if we offer a smile to the people that we meet on the streets, we will be able to bring happiness not only to ourselves but we will also spread love to the people around us.

My dear juniors and seniors, this is your special night, if you will apply this principles from tonight onwards, I assure you, you will have wonderful memories to share throughout your lives. So I will tell you, enjoy life, just like tonight. And for the seniors, for the remaining days in high school, you will never be able to come back in this stage, so cherish it. Your classmates will eventually become your lifetime barkada, do something good to them for the remaining days before graduation and also bond well with your juniors and vice versa so that wherever life may bring you someday, they will always want to come back in our lovely province because of the good memories you shared. But I have to say, although it is not a sin to enjoy, we still have to know our boundaries, ok?

The last of my principles is Prayer. Same advice that we as juniors got from our then good speaker kuya Roland in 2002 is to pray and ask for the Almighty’s guidance in all that we do. We have to realize, that what we are, and what we will become is not purely under our own wills. Although it is right that we have to make things happen for us, it is still He who knows what is best for us, and He will be the one to grant us what we want when He knows it is the right time. May we always seek His guidance and blessing in all we do and never forget to thank Him for every little blessings that He brings us.

As I end my message, let me again remind you… Virtue equipped with the right discipline, staying Happy by sharing love to one another and prayers to give us strength and guidance in all that we do, will surely make your studying days fruitful and will lead you to your dream of success.
Ladies and gentlemen, it is my great pleasure. Thank you and good evening!