ULOG #05: A Journey In Gratitude (Graduation: A Turning Point)

GRADUATION IS a turning point in life: adolescence ends, and adult life begins. We witness our transformation from childhood to the maturity of adulthood. We bid adieu to the period of youth- an age of moods and mysteries; of new emotions and strange solitary conflicts waged within the soul; of wistful looks into the future to guess what its closed hand may hold.

We sometimes face a life crisis when we emerge out from the period of adolescence and knock at the door of maturity. We slowly become ready to adjust to new problems. We learn to cope with the difficulties of which the joyous and optimistic youth is ignorant. We can now stand against the current of life's floods and storms. We now have a widened outlook on the world and on life.

We thank our parents whose love protects us on the road of life, whose understanding comforts us in time of sorrow, whose patience makes us enjoy the present and prepares us for the future, whose sacrifice saves us from the waves of fear and doubt, whose prayer teaches us that the storms of life come not to destroy but to deepen the roots of our faith.

We thank our teachers whose skill directs our development with greater sympathy and intelligence, whose wisdom inspires us with wholesome ambitions for self-advancement, whose enthusiasm arouses our thirst for further knowledge, whose earnest mind explores our tendencies and desires, whose tact helps us meet the problems that arise, whose vision sees boys and girls as future men and women.

We thank our Alma Mater, Father Saturnino Urios University, which has given us the master key to life- Christian education. With this heritage we hope to unlock the innermost secrets of the soul and direct its actions safely toward the ends for which it was created.