Pya Salvanera: Post Graduation Syndrome

I currently have this Post graduation syndrome, because I had a hard time in realizing the fact that I am officially done schooling. Symptoms are when you can actually discern what you have achieved in the past, when you feel grateful to the people who carried the burdens with you, and when you can already find time to notice the things that you have overlooked before due to the countless tasks that were required to accomplish within the deadly deadlines.

Being diagnosed with this syndrome, I can feel the need to have little words of gratitude to the people who have inspired me during the past four bleeding years of engraving the words "AB Mass Communication minor in Development Communication" to my life. I did not have the chance to deliver these words in front of a crowd during the graduation rites, for I did not even plan to be a top graduate/class valedictorian after all. And I believe that even the student who got the least passing grade in every graduation is entitled to gratify the people who saved him/her in reaching at least the tip of the hanging cliff.

Let me begin by thanking God for His mission impossible to send me to graduation. For the benefit of the unaware, I almost fill the Orocan drum full of tears early during July to September due to thesis conflicts, which is one of the major keys to open our door to graduation. Truly, God is my best writer for coming up with the a well-written story, supplied with a dramatic conflict and a smooth transition to resolution. And that story was my own.

To my parents, who almost crashed my ears by telling me "wala kang dapat gawin kundi mag-aral, mag-aral, mag-aral" way back few weeks before the first day of school in college, my medal has been the answer to your never-ending advices. Thank you for providing me my needs and wants and for treating me like a precious silver spoon since I was born. Just wait until tables are turned. Soon.

To my Lola, my very first mentor and guardian, who failed to witness my shining moments in college, I know you are still watching me from heaven. And I know you are one of the reasons why I excelled in school more than I expected and planned it to be. When I was a little girl, you promised me, "Hayaan mo, 'pag ako namatay, ibubulong ko sa 'yo mga sagot tuwing exam mo". Now I understand why you joined God in heaven so early, so you can be at my side, so you can whisper the directions to the right track. Please meet me in my dreams. I want to deliver this good news to you. Personally.

To my college professors, especially in the Mass Communication Department, I never expect that I would be having the sweetest mentors, as opposed to the stereotypical terror college professors every student encounters. You have been our mothers and fathers whom we can run to even outside the school premises, and even outside school hours.

To Miss Flordeliz Abanto, thank you for being a mother to us, especially during our Calauan intervention and during the times when we had difficulties with our thesis data gathering. I will definitely miss your red ballpen that once became a deadly weapon to us, for I know that tomorrow, there will be no red ballpens that will remind us if we are still in the right track.

To Miss Wowie Lomibao, Miss Becky Marquez, Miss Arche Ligo and Miss Milflor Gonzales, you have proven me that Development Communication is really the best minor track for me. Thank you for supplying fun and enjoyment while we are learning. Thank you letting us learn outside the four walls of our classroom by exposing us in different field works and actual tasks, for we would never learn and understand life if we have not let ourselves get dirty and wasted.

To Miss Rose Feliciano, thank you for the screams and the high-pitched reprimands during TV production classes. I will be always proud that a veteran small but terrible professor has touched my life and believed in my capabilities.

To Prof. Lester Morales and Miss Joyce Bustamante, thank you honing the creative side of me. You have just proven that formal class sessions can be enthusiastic and interesting as well. I will never forget the impact of media to people, so as the emotional benefits of every advertisement and the concept of positioning in the Advertising field.

To Prof. Jerrie Abella, Prof. Vince Pozon, Prof. Lorenzo Gabutina and Miss Sockie Fernandez, though I did not have the chance to have you as my professors, I will be proud that I have entered a school with such brilliant professors. I know my co-students are very grateful for all the thoughts you have shared with them.

To Prof. Johnathan Rondina, thank you for making us stronger. Your OC-ness have taught us to reject mediocrity, that everything worth doing is worth doing well. Thank you for being so professional, especially during our media events projects. And thank you for believing in me. You will be always our Tatay.

To our Mass Communication chairperson, Prof. Chally Romero, thank you for being such a caring and loving father to me and my Mass Comm sisters. Thank you for reminding us that Mass Comm Kulasas are one of the strongest women who shine in the outside world. We have become more confident than before in facing the real world.

To our coolest professor and thesis adviser, Prof. Mike Sandejas, we thank you very much for being our 'Daddy-O' by keeping the optimism within our group every time we are bound with anxiety. Without you, our thesis would not be possible, and our dream of graduating on time would remain only a dream.

To Calauan Relocatees and inmates of Correctional Institution of Women, I thank you for being an inspiration for me to uplift the welfare of Filipino people, especially as I am about to soar my wings in the real world.

Of course, I would also like to extend my gratitude to my friends whom I found and met as I was walking through my journey. Thank you my fellow Kulasas, for turning the long and tiring journey exciting and memorable.

To Mary Tayag, my very first college friend since the Freshmen Orientation 2008 and one of my closest friends until the Commencement Exercises 2012, I thank you for everything. We may already forget all the things we shared with each other and all the time we spent together, but I will never forget all the chismis and chikas we have told each other. I thank God for giving me the craziest friend to brighten up my college years.

To my thesis mates, Andy, thank you for your patience and perseverance that made us stronger during our hard times. It is such a blessing to have you as my thesis mate and a 'forever school partner' since first year. Mingky, thank you for complementing Andy's pensiveness. Thanks for all the jokes and the 'mocking sessions' we have shared in the past just to temporarily relieve from the stress we acquired from thesis writing. Though we did not have the chance to bag the best thesis, what matters most is that we were able to finish a concrete study within 3 months that was supposedly a year and a half long. I am very glad to see you marching down the aisle with me.

To my EnviSoc Babies, batch 2010-2011 and 2011-2012, thank you for putting up spice to my college life. Through our different set of activities, I learned that advocacy cannot just be manifested in a hard sell manner. I hope that we can continue being crusaders of Mother Earth even outside St. Scho.

To my DevCom Babies, Soleil, my number once influencer to pursue DevComm as a minor, Krista, my teddy bear and hugging buddy in school, Arianne, my counselor and food trip mate, Karl, our dakilang class representative, Quimn, my grievance handling master and my editing partner, Shaun and Pam, my Hanepbuhay campaign buddies, Pau, my X-dance co-proponent, Nat, my most 'pretending' to be conservative friend and 'pretending' to be my cousin, Kaye, Kathy and Ai, my angels whose looks are indeed deceiving (beware!), Jamie, the chikadora/alaskadora queen and Za, the taga-kain of my leftover food, thank you for letting me feel that I really made the best choice in considering Development Communication as a minor. I will always be proud for being one of the best and the most bonded batch ever! Watch our real world, here comes a good batch of agents of social change!

Having a special mention to the girls who have become closest to my heart despite the fact that we have just founded this group three weeks before graduation. Thank you very much to the Beaches: Pau, Kaye, Kathy, Pam, Nat, Ingrid and Ai, I have never been so honest in sharing things about my life until we formed this group. I hope this friendship continues to be stronger even though time did not permit us to bond together for a long time. I love you.

Lastly, I would also like to extend my gratitude to St. Scholastica's College, which I considered my home for four years. Who would have thought that my dream of becoming a maintstream TV/movie actress was converted to a feminist/activist and agent of social change? Thank you for reminding me that there is more to life than existing for yourself alone. Patuloy kong isasapuso ang Ora et Labora (prayer and work) hanggang sa aking paglabas ng paaralan.

To those I failed to mention, I thank you.

This may be the end of this post, a signal to an end of my journey, for a new beginning is now about to start. After all, this is just a small chapter of my life, and I know God is already busy writing a bright future ahead of me. Until my next chapter! And I do hope to see you all there :)

At sa lahat ng bagay, ang Diyos ay bigyang papuri.

That in all things, God may be glorified.