Article No. 30
3-16-01
YOU ARE NOW A COLLEGE GRADUATE
On March 26, 2001 you will say goodbye to your Alma Mater, the University of Sto. Tomas. On that date you will become a certified BS Chem graduate. What a very pleasant and happy moment for the family!
I very clearly remember the day you were to go to Manila to take the UST entrance exams. I was to go with you but that month of May was particularly heavy on Manila-bound passengers and all the buses were all fully booked.
Up to the night we were supposed to leave for Manila I failed to get tickets for our trip. When I broke the news to you, great disappointment was written all over your face. In fact, you bowled over and cried like a small child.
In desperation, I told you to get up and get dressed. We would go to the bus terminal and take our risk as ch ance passengers. Drying your tears, you glumly dressed up while inside me I was praying hard to the Lord that there would be a mysterious bus where two passengers would fail to show up.
When we reached Panganiban Avenue (Naga City) and approached the Penafrancia buses, I immediately inquired among the conductors. But they all said the buses were full occuppied. My heart sunk. My God, Janette will not be able to take her exams! And tomorrow of that day would be the last, last exam UST would conduct for new enrollees!
I was desperate and I knew I could not disappoint you. I knew you would never forgive me if we failed to go to Manila. I knew also of your gutsy determination to take up your college studies in Manila. Not for a moment did I doubt you would not measure up to the higher standards of the oldest University in Asia. You have the drive. You have the brains. I knew you can cope.
In the middle of my reflections and in the midst of the hustle and bustle of frantic passengers, I remembered hearing one conductor shouting that they needed two passengers more.Thank God, I murmured and lunged forward for the bus. Seconds later, we were comfortably seated, now doubly sure you were after all going to take your UST entrance exams.
Now, four years after, you are graduating. You have passed the rigors in your academic life. You have shown your mettle. Your mama and I are proud of you.The glorious moment we were waiting for has come. It was worth all the scrimping and sacrifices we made here back home just so you could attend to your studies untroubled by financial matters.
The four years in Manila have, I am sure, made you wiser. I am sure you have become a cosmopolite and an urbane woman, sophisticated in the ways of the city and yet rustic at heart and provincial in temperament.
Y ou are now a BS Chem graduate, a remarkable feat you have achieved considering it is one of the hardest courses at UST and few finish it as a regular student. But you did it. Congratulations, Jalpet. Also thank the Lord for this enormous blessing that has come your way thru your singular effort. He has shown His generosity to you.
Take note, however, that graduation is just a stepping stone to the great wide world outside. In fact you are at the threshhold of another chapter in your life. Y our Mama and I pray hard you will be crowned with success, and that every endeavor you expend shall be rewarded in full measure.
Count your lucky stars and smile in contentment but be steeled to continue the good fight, be it in your upcoming profession, in your personal life or in your role as a productive citizen of our beloved nation.
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So to you Jalpet, our impulsive and energetic daughter, our third child of enormous potential and unflagging determination, our daughter with the impish smile and mischievous contretemps, to you we doff our hats to acknowledge and be honored of your singular achievement!
May God bless you and keep you forever in His protection! We love you!
SEQUEL:
I wrote this article way back 2001 when she was about to graduate from the University of Sto. Tomas. Now I am writing an addendum, a sequel in fact, today, April 22, 2006, because there is a curious twist to the story.
This daughter of mine is now holding a high-paying job as a Java programmer. She never applied for a job as a chemist because after graduation, she confessed to me she hates the smell of chemicals!
She begged me to send her back to college to study Computer Science. I was floored. She merely wanted to experience studying in Manila and followed my wish for her to take up Chemistry. Perhaps I was also trying to act out my fantasy to become a scientist involved in cell engineering. I saw in her the realization of that dream!
If she had told me she really wanted to study Comsci, I would not allow her to study in Manila because Ateneo de Naga University can measure up to Manila universties when it comes to Computer studies.
My wife and I talked things out and finally relented to let her take up a second course but we insisted she take up the course here in Naga City at AdeNU. After all, when one loves a job, it ceases to be a chore. It becomes a passion. Happily, she finished the course in three years’ time (credits from UST subjects were counted in)and right after graduation in ComSci, there was already a job offer waiting for her.
She is still in the same software company and had since been sent to Dublin, Ireland and Manchester, England to do out-sourcing tasks for the company’s clients. Presently, she is back in Manila and slated again to fly to New York in the near future for another out-sourcing job.
Really, you never know how things can turn out! 
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