Valedictory Address delivered by Ethylene Grace Serrano, J.D.

Class Valedictorian, College of Law, University of Batangas

U.B. Hilltop Campus, April 8, 2010

To our highly esteemed President Dr. Hernando B. Perez, to the Chairman of the Board
of Regents, Gov. Vicente Mayo and to the members of the Board of Regents, to our honorable
guest speakers, Hon. Secretary Silvestre Bello III and Hon. Congresswoman Atty. Mar-len
Abigail Binay-Campos, to the members of the Administration, members of the faculty, proud
parents, fellow graduates, Good Evening.

I am deeply honored and humbled by the privilege to stand before you and address you on
behalf of the graduating batch of 2010.

Today is a day that will forever be ingrained in our memories. A day for jubilee, a day of
triumph, a day to celebrate the feat that we have achieved. Today is the day we graduate. We can
finally say that we did it. Yes, we did it. Some of us spent 4 grueling years to get here, for others
it took longer, but hey we’re all here reaping the rewards of the painstaking sacrifices we’ve
made and those of the people behind us. But this momentous occasion is only just as sweet as the
road we traversed to get here had been bitter.

We may have come from different colleges, took up different fields of study. But one thing
for sure, we all experienced difficulty getting here in more ways than one. The life of a student is
not easy. Today we reminisce the memories of the years that led us here. For my part, when I
came to this university I did not know what to expect, I did not know what was in store for me
and honestly I did not know why I agreed to enter law school. Having just earned my degree
from UP Diliman and with no concrete plan of the next step to take, my husband suggested that I
take up law in this institution which made his sister, my sister-in-law, a lawyer. I agreed and took
a leap of faith, a leap that I am glad I took.

I distinctly remember my first week in law school. After the orientation, I did not want to go
back the next day. I was so terrified at how much work was to be done and how much I still had
to learn. But my husband prodded me to go on. True enough I experienced the most miserable,
most taxing, most physically and emotionally exhausting and draining years of my life. But it
was not all because of law school. Just like every graduate’s own experience, it was because we
all had to deal not just with school but with all of life at the same time. We experienced sleepless
nights finishing up projects and home works which seemed endless. We burnt the midnight oil
studying for a brain busting exam and yet still feel like that we have not prepared at all. We
sometimes neglect to eat just to save up a few more minutes to read. We even developed the skill
to read while doing almost any other thing that allows multi-tasking, be it riding a jeepney,
walking up the hilltop to UB, and for my part even while taking a bath or cuddling my babies to
sleep. There were some of us who had to juggle work, family and studies, all at the same time.
There were times when we felt alone, alienated, different. Some had to make pit stops to regain
their spirits. There were times when we thought we couldn’t make it. But we did. And now we
emerge as diamonds built by time and immense pressure, tested to perfection to be the most
precious of all the precious gems.

However, today is a day not only for the graduates, but also of the other persons who are
celebrating with us. Today is their day as much as it is ours. Today we give tribute to all the
people who served as the wind beneath our wings.

To all the parents of these valiant graduates, we salute you all for the all the hard work and
selfless sacrifices that you have made to send these distinguished graduates to this university.
But more importantly, we thank and admire you for instilling in us the value of hard work,
perseverance and the desire to learn and pursue further learning. You have been our inspiration
and motivation. I personally would like to thank my parents for bringing us up right, my in-laws
for never neglecting me, my husband for pushing me to take up law and for my 3 children for
being the reason for my being and my legacy.

To the professors, instructors and mentors, there can be no better day to acknowledge your
indispensable contribution to our success. We thank and commend you for imparting your gained
knowledge to us, for choosing a career in the academe to guide the younger generation and for
embodying the profession which we hope to become a part of. Thank you for showing us the life
that we wish to pursue and equipping us with the tools to excel in our chosen fields. But most
importantly thank you for believing in us and allowing us to graduate.

To this university, I am personally grateful. This university has been a second home to me.
When I started to build my life here, UB became my haven, my refuge. UB allowed me to
redeem myself. It gave me the chance to learn, to grow, to mature. Just when I thought it was the
end of the road for me, UB opened a whole new avenue of opportunities for me. I graduated
from the premiere university of the country, but I am just as glad that I became a product of UB.
Despite being situated in the province, UB has consistently been among the top performing
school in almost every field. In fact, UB made my sister snatch the top 6 place in the 2008
Nursing Board Exam. What differentiates UB from other schools and universities is that UB has
a heart, a heart she never neglects to share with her students. I told my sister that she was lucky
she finished her studies here because UB took very good care of her.

We also thank our classmates and friends who has taken this journey along side us. They say
misery loves company. And indeed in our travails, we found strength in one another. We enjoyed
laughter together even in the midst of overwhelming tasks. Our memories will forever stitch us
together. I personally thank my classmates for showing me your passion for this profession
which I have come to love. We are halfway through, the battle is half-won.

And last but not the least, we give honor and glory to God; He who has blessed us with our
parents, our professors, this university, our friends and the blessing of life. We owe all this to
Him. And just as in the midst of failures, disappointments, heartaches and misfortunes, we call
on to Him, in the zenith of our success we glorify and exalt His name for we are nothing without
Him. He has never left our prayers unanswered and has never left our side. For all the times that
I thought I was alone, at times when I thought I couldn’t go on, He was my constant companion,
a ready shoulder to cry on and the steady hand who held me up.

Today marks not just an end, but also a beginning, a commencement of a new journey. As
we leave the portals of this university, we bring with us our hard earned degrees, equipped with
the knowledge and skills to excel in our chosen careers. But let us not forget her ideals. And like
a diamond, in order to truly showcase our brilliance, we still need some work. We still have to be
cut, cleaved, sawed and polished. We should not rest on our laurels. We should not be afraid to
pursue further learning, be it in within the halls of the academy or out in the real world. Because
the day a man stops learning is the day he starts dying.

The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step. And tonight we begin that first step.
As we step out of UB, our chosen careers will lead us to different paths. Taking from Martin
Luther King, if a man is called to be a street sweeper, he should sweep streets even as
Michelangelo painted or Beethoven composed music or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should
sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause and say, "Here lived a great
street sweeper who did his job well." So graduates, be the best engineers, nurses, scientists, and
lawyers that you can be. Congratulations to us all!

Thank you.