MESSAGE OF GRATITUDE

BY: REINER C. OCON

Friends, teachers, parents, and distinguished guests, a felicitous afternoon to all
of you. Standing and speaking in front of you is an honor for me to express how I
feel at this moment. Reaching this milestone in my life is not an easy journey. God
the father and my parents are my shining armor for they have made me for who
and what I am now. With this I want to give my deepest gratitude first and for most
to God for giving me strength, patience, perseverance, and hard work not only
for me but also to my fellow completers. To all parents present here, my loving
and supportive parents, thank you. You have been my inspiration, motivation,
and strength in striving and overcoming all the hardships of schooling. All of these
wouldn’t be possible without you, I will not be here if not because of you. All of
these are for you. All the honors and thank yous are all on you. Thank you for your
endless support, consideration, patience, hard work, and sacrifices for me, for
us in our peregrination in this school. Thank you for leading and guiding us in the
right path. To Binday National High School Teaching force, especially our advisers
since we were freshmen who helped me and us in molding ourselves to what we
are now and ti become a better one, thank you. You served as our parents,
multiple parents rather. Thank you for the knowledge that you gave us, for all the
things that you taught us. To my friends and best of friends who always support
me in everything that I do, thank you. My victory is not only for me, but also for
them. We’re not related biologically, we’re not even brothers and sisters by blood,
but we are family by heart. Thank you. Thank you for the memories that we’ve
made. Memories that will remain in my heart for a lifetime.
A single thank you in not enough for all the help, support, sacrifices, and for all the
things that you have done and given us, and once we become successful, we still
have to look back on what we are before, remember the people who became a
part of our journey and by simply saying thank you could be a way in repaying all
of their hardships. Always remember that you will not be what you are now if not
because of them. In life there are many people who gave up fighting rather than
those who were defeated, and there are also many people who still choose to help
and fight for us not to be defeated and become successful. There are many things
for us to be thankful of, and these people are the most worthy of it.
As Henri Frederic Amiel once said, “Thankfulness is the beginning of gratitude.
Gratitude is the completion of thankfulness. Thankfulness may consists merely of
words. Gratitude is shown in acts. “ As an attest to this, may I ask my fellow 2019
completers to please stand and join me in expressing our gratitude to our dear
parents by simply giving hugs and kisses.