Valedictory Address

    Let me just share to you my valedictory address back in 2001 during my elementary years. Honestly, this isn't original since I just based this on another valedictory address way back in 1993. This might sound old but hopefully this can be useful for those who seek ideas for their own valedictory address.

Honored guest, ______________, __________________, ____________________, _____________, beloved teachers, family, and to my fellow graduates, good morning.

A famous poet once said, “There’s a time for everything under the sun; a time to sow, and a time to reap; a time to plant and a time to pluck.”

Certainly, the time has come to harvest the grains we have painstakingly planted for six meaningful years. The long awaited reaping is here and now – GRADUATION DAY.

But have we asked ourselves the question, “Am I ripe for plucking?”

Education is a preparation for life. The kind of preparation we did will determine the kind of life we shall lead after we have left the portal of our beloved Alma Mater, the A. Bonifacio Elementary School, the place we considered as our second home. Some of us may have taken this preparation an opportunity to squander time and found pleasure in truant activities.  And I could not imagine how some of us shall fare in the game called life after leaving our school. Yet, among the chaff, the healthy and ripe grains did not budge despite unpleasant environment.  We took each moment an opportunity to grow, to develop into wholesome individuals as to prepare ourselves to a more challenging life outside the walls of the classroom. We realized that if one has to succeed, he or she has to work for it.

Yes, our dear teachers. You molded us the way we should become in the future. You lighted the torch so that we will not grope in the darkness of ignorance and uselessness. You freed us from the bondage of true poverty. By the light you have lighted, we started to see the truth of life that we can become better persons we can be despite the many temptations to go astray. For these, we are sincerely grateful to you.

To our parents, whose gift of life we can never repay, we dedicate our toils---our hardships and successes. We have become what you wished we should be. As we receive our diploma, we are also receiving the fruit of your hard labor so that the gift of education is endowed to us. We need no other gift than this.

Above all, to the Divine Power who made all things possible. We lay before Him our sacrifices and victories. Without Him, we have not reached the heights where we are now. And we shall be prepared for the final harvest that He has set for us.

To my fellow graduates, I could not say so much. ABES has done its best that we could not ask for more. It has provided us warmth of belongingness and knowledge of life. How we used this nourishment is what we can see now. The harvest is plenty. But the question is, will you be a chaff or a grain?  This is a challenge for us. Let us do our best to make our family, our alma mater be proud of us. Let us prove that we, the present crop of graduates, can grow tall and be fruitful.

To end my speech, let me leave you with a stanza “Yesterday is but a dream and tomorrow is only a vision. But yesterday well-lived makes every yesterday a dream of happiness and tomorrow a vision of hope.