School days have ended and tomorrow will be graduation day. After all the struggles, all the pains and all the deadlines, it finally reached its end. But at the back of it will also be the end of the memories shared in all the four corners of the classroom. All the joys, all the laughter and all the triumph will soon need to be part of history, moments that will only be seen in pictures, videos and some posted notes. Soon enough, together with the pain of schooling, all the joys will only be part of the past.

Four years ago when I entered college, whenever I see graduation advertisements attributed to the successful graduates of that year, I was always amazed. Knowing the difficulty of being a student, I always see graduates as exalted people who managed to win the great battle inside the academe. Whenever I see graduation advertisements, I always wish to be in the shoes of the graduates applauded for receiving their diplomas. I always wonder how it feels wearing that black toga.

Now that I will be part of the students who will take the grand march hopefully after this day, I know how it feels to be one. A mixture of joy and sadness- that was what they felt, that is what I feel. It is the joy of finally ending the years of apprenticeship and the sadness of leaving all the memories behind. The joy of the success just attained and the sadness of missing all the friendships made behind the walls of the university. Though a student’s life is full of sleepless nights, stressful projects and terror professors, all of those are easily flounced with the delight and encouragement given by people called friends, friends that will forever remain in my heart.

All these days, friends are the reason why I kept on fighting. I’ve spent two years learning my ABC’s, six years learning my basic math, science and history, four years for advance algebra, complicated sciences and deeper history, and finally another four years to furnish them all. That was the history of my student life. But between the letters A, B&C, inside the lungs of a dissected frog and behind the scenes of Noli and Fili, there were lessons learned, there were lessons felt. Lessons that were neither found on the blackboard filled with chalk dust nor in the notebooks filled with inks but rather through friends that come and go, through friends that come and stay.

I am a loner person, but friendship taught not to be. If there is one thing I’ve learned in college life, it is to mingle with friends. I know how to speak but my friends taught me how to express myself. I know how to smile but my friends taught me how to laugh. I know how to work under pressure but my friends taught me how to work happily against pressure. I know the definition of love but my friends taught me what love is. If there is one thing I’ll miss, if there is one thing graduates surely miss, that is the memories and lessons taught by friendship.

But more than being proud of myself and proud of my friends, I am very much proud with my parents and the parents of the all the graduates. Without them students will never be students, graduates will never be graduates. My parents were the ones who directed my hand through the first letter I wrote and the ones that guided my first step toward the long journey to graduation. Now that I’m about to take my final step of my student life, they are still there and it wouldn’t be as sweet without them. If I have struggled and suffered, they endured twice as much. If I have shed a tear, they have cried more. So if I am delighted to be a graduate, they are twofold blissful than I.

In behalf of the all the graduates, we render our greatest salute first to God Almighty and next to our beloved parents and friends who fought with us till the last drop of their blood. You gave us the support, you gave us the spirit that’s why we got it. Thank you very much.