Success is counted sweetest

By those who never succeed

To comprehend a nectar
Requires sorest need
This infectious, introspective stanza is taken from the poem “Success is
Counted Sweetest” by a well-known poet Emily Dickinson whose writings often
venture to the depths of every human heart. But what does it imply? To fully
comprehend the former thoughts, allow me to inflict you a story.
This woman in front of you is a product of hardship, courage and success.
Living in a family of ten siblings of which I am the eldest and parents, whom a
father busied himself with his simple past time which was sewing and later became
his full time job as a tailor and whom a mother occupied herself with household
tasks and taught us the virtues of life, was never easy. Sound pleasing, but life
was always stiff. This had been a cliché of those families who were like us, living
on the poverty line – “kumot sa kan-on, tuslok sa asin, butang sa baba”. This
incident was reoccurring for we always had nothing delicious to eat.
I sometimes went to school with empty pocket but always came home with
full of knowledge from my teachers. I liked to watch TV from our neighbors because
we have none, but doors and windows were shut before I could even peer on their
houses. I was not an exemption too from the discriminations of others and
surprisingly, those words were thrown by other families of the same veins.
Nonetheless, my life did not stop there like a bamboo being withered by a
stormy night but continued to grow the next day. Yes, I piled all the sorrows I had
undergone one step at a time and unknowingly, I was able to make a staircase
towards reaching my dreams. My mom taught us how to be strong and determined
for she, herself, is also a survivor of a heart problem despite the challenges she
has trailed. I know the distress of her own conscious events and the undertakings
of our family had confided and remained her undefeated and I always thank God
for that.
The incident of my past kept lingering in me like how my mom taught me to
sing using a spoon and a fork struck against the sewing machine of my father. With
that, she could create the almost the same tune of the song that I would be singing
in a contest. When I won, the prizes went to the expenses of the house and to the
cloth to be sewn by my father for my next costume. We kept doing it until I reached
high school and college.
However, my parents cannot support my studies anymore so nag-BDO ko, I
found ways. I did not lose hope; in fact, my talent gave me the opportunity to be a
scholar in CCC now called UC. I was a member of CCC’s cultural dance troupe
but I was a singer and I didn’t dance with the team because I always had a special
song number. I was a talent of Dr. Magno, our head. He never gave me to CCC
chorale for he always said, “Ako’y naka discover nemo so ari ka nako”. I didn’t
understand. I was also confused why a singer was in the dance troupe. I said,
“bahala na, basta kay maka-skwela lang ko ug makahuman.”
I was a student at day time and a singer whenever there’s contest at night.
Performed here, performed there, giving the best that I could just to maintain my
scholarship and give my prizes to my parents.
And soon, I graduated, but years after, I got married. I thought life would be
a piece of cake when you have someone you can share with the burdens of life.
Yes, it sometimes did. But married life was actually beyond the sanity of my
imagination until I gave birth with our first son. Both of us were of utmost happiness
and we couldn’t imagine that God bless us with four sons and daughter.
 It’s indeed uneasy to raise five kids with a year or few gaps of ages along our
marriage life. It was enduring but satisfying and fulfilling. I had to compromise many
things just to attend their needs and wants. But I tell you, the result was so
rewarding most especially when you saw them marching on their graduation day
almost one at a year and how they managed to achieve their dreams, the same
process and attitudes as how I attained mine.
With that, I’ve come to realize how meaningful the stanza of Emily Dickinson
is. Normally, when you experience defeat, your success is greater to perceive
because you really know how it feels to have the opposite. We are welded by the
struggles of life to become stronger and not weaker. If you remain courageous to
walk firm in front of your darkest hours, you will surely find a tiny light from a
distance that seems to become bigger and bigger as you continue your journey.
But the true feeling of success does not lie on things you acquire nor reach at the
end. A genuine success is counted sweetest when you experience the bitterness
of life and along with this are your loved ones and inspirations who keep supporting
you all throughout.
Graduates, congratulations in advance and be grateful to all the people
behind your smiles tonight. Don’t forget that this is just your first step towards your
dreams in life. The bigger and real scenario is seen outside the four walls of our
institution.
Remember what a wise man said, “behind every man’s success is a woman”,
but I tell you when you reach parenthood “behind every mother’s success is her
family.”
Thank you and God bless us all.