DLA: 7th Commencement Exercises (High School)
03 April 2007
DLA Audigym
1723H
Currently here at DLA to witness my brother's HS graduation. The moment I walked in the school's premises, it felt like I'm brought to a familiar scene in a very familiar place. Sampaguita necklace. Official photographer. Corsage. Toga. Parents. Graduates. Goosebumps. The first person who walked right up to me was our very own Class Valedictorian, Carlo Trinidad (Kane to some). He obviously looked confused as to why I'm there, then he immediately realized that our brothers are batchmates like us.
1755H
We are about to begin the program in 5 minutes. May I ask everyone to settle down in their respective seats. Thank you. That was Teacher Cecille Montoya, tonight's Master of Ceremonies. I went up to the 2nd floor and found a perfect seat overlooking the stage and the rest of the crowd. On my left, a parent sets up the tripod for their videocam while two undergrads sit right next to me. Everyone was busy.
1800H
Nice. The program, indeed, began on time. Just when the background music for the graduation march was played, the processional began. Integrity. Solidarity. Sovereignty. Special Awardees. Honorable Mentions. Salutatorian. Valedictorian. There were 117 graduates. I don't know why but I was having goosebumps all over my body when I saw them march on. Is it pure excitement or is it pride I'm feeling for these kids? Like I've said, I've seen these kids grow up (literally) and become responsible teenagers especially to my brother's classmates from Grade 4-6, whom I've handled in English class where the Seniors took charge of the undergrads during Teacher's day. Among other batches, they were the dearest to me.
After the processional, I saw Kane heading his way to the bench where I was sitting. He sat beside me, smiled, and said "Grabe noh, parang kelan lang tayo yung nandyan. 3rd Commencement Exercises. Ang tatanda na natin." Though I laughed at the latter part of what he said, I also had the same realization. As a reply, I said, "Oo nga eh. Ano nga bang feeling nung nakaupo sa gitna ng stage?" matched with a teasing tone. We both laughed at that.
There were 15 students on stage. These are the Top 10% achievers of the entire class. Not surprisingly, my brother sits on stage. He receives the recognition for being the 9th honorable mention of their batch. Like the rest of the awardees, he was accompanied by our proud parents. Among us three (siblings), Roi (Butchok to a few close friends :p) was the consistent academic achiever. Never did he disappoint my parents in bringing home medals and other recognitions from school and even interschool activities/competitions. One thing that caught my attention was the blinding fact that there were more male achievers than the female ones. We had Kane and they have Nathaniel Casillan as Class Valedictorian--the only two male valedictorians in DLA's history (to date).
There were special guests invited to witness the ceremony. One was Bro. Odi, who gave a very interesting talk (it was so interesting I actually listened attentively) and a DEP-ED representative who brought with her a "surprise". The "surprise" was about the PGMA Presidential Medal of Excellence which will be awarded to 5 graduating students who excelled in the given categories. One of which is the Medal of Excellence in Literary works. At that point, Kane told me that if we had that kind of recognition back in our time, I would have gotten that award. Modesty aside, I received recognition (locally & internationally) for my poetries back in high school. Just that thought of it made me proud. But then, who knows? Well, the rest of the night (I actually lost track of the time while writing this in my tickler.) I spent talking with Kane, recalling some of the wonderful memories we've had during our high school days. As I have this conversation with him, I realized that somehow, he's a sensible person. I must admit we were not "close" back then and yet, we talked like we've known each other very well. We were classmates only in first year but I never had such conversation with him before, though we were also busmates (their house is just 3 blocks adjacent to ours).
When I got my phone to check who texted, I saw Gabo's msg: Nand2 kb dla ngyn? Grad pla ni eyoy haha ngyn ko lng nlman. Wla akng mktang kbatch ntn d2. When I read his message, I just thought, Magkapatid ba talaga 'tong si Gabo at Eyoy? I sent him a reply and a bit later, he was sitting next to Kane. When I looked around, a few feet away from us, I saw Par and Maple mingling with the other undergrads and alumni. I waved at them to join us in our seats. Trivia: Par has attended the succeeding Commencement Exercises since we graduated from highschool. That is because she has friends from different batches, be it higher or lower years. :D
2200H
The entire ceremony ended at around 10:00pm where most of the guests are obviously restless because of hunger. Good thing my parents already anticipated this (a lesson learned from their experience during my graduation haha) so 2 weeks before, they have already made reservations in Max's Restaurant just across the school. Sir Leomar, Ma'am Ruth, Sir George, Ma'am Thess (and her hubby, Cloyd), and Sir Al (who didn't show up) were invited to have dinner with us. Good food (though I'm not a fan of Max's fried chicken). Long talks. Hearty laughs. Just a wonderful way of calling it a day.
Congratulations Batch 2007!
