To our handsome School Administrator Mr. Alfredo Moreno, to our ever supportive college dean Mr. Felicisimo Felicilda, to the beautious and very generous chairman of the Business Administration department, Ms. Ma. Victoria Jimenez, to the faculty and staff, parents, students, visitors and guests my warmest greetings to all of you! It is an honor and privilege for me to give an inspirational talk. Actually, this is the first time. In fact as I was trying to produce this speech I kept asking myself, "Who do I inspire?" I presumed there will be three groups of people in this building first, the best people who are being recognized this morning, next, those who have tried and have lost, and the last are those who haven't tried at all. I have decided that it will be best for all of us here to inspire each other, to learn lessons from each other, to share successes and failures and the lessons that we can derive from them.Let us first consider the best in this group because this morning's event is in their honor. I want to greetall of youyoung achievers. Consider yourselvesextremely lucky because you are among the honorees today. You did a great job, thats why youre part of this years cream of the crop. Congratulations to your teachers and most importantly to your parents. I know how happy you are today because of the achievements you have acquired, but thats double the happiness your parents are feeling right now. This time you inspire those who were not the best. All their lives they have always admired your kind, they have always aspired to be a little bit like you. I congratulate you for your achievement and for the honor that you have brought to MIIT. To you, I have this message - your talent, whatever it is, whether a gift, or a blessing - be grateful! Give your wins a meaning by being magnanimous and by making people happy. Also, let your being winners teach you lessons that could pilot your lives. Remember too, that after climbing a great hill, there are many more hills to climb so expect for more and harder challenges. Your achievement has given you a good start and the best of preparations. We, your teachers, are hopeful that you will continue to bring honor to our institution even as you leave its portals.Kudos to all of you! May you double you efforts, if not, maintain the fervor in all your intellectual endeavors. May I advice, anyway that as you become popular in the campus still you should remain humble. Refrain looking down on your less intelligent classmates or schoolmates, thinking you are more important than them. In the educational arena, as students, you are still on training. This isnt real victory yet. Real victory in education is when you already finish a course and land on a decent job. Im not here to discourage you for getting exceptional scholastic performance. Congratulations indeed because you serve as an inspiration to others. However, may I remind you as well that success likewise require that throughout your life you need to maintain not only the intellectual fervor but the equilibrium of humility that in the face of all humanity we are all equal. God may have endowed on you greater intellectual prowess compared to others but it has a purpose not to make yourselves selfish but to be of service to others. Let us be reminded always by one of the nuggets of wisdom we can get from the movie Spiderman, with great power comes great responsibility.I am also like you before. When I was in elementary and high school, Im also receiving a lot of academic decoration up until I graduated in college. How did I do that? I just aimed, to not only finish my elementary, high school and college, but to finish it with flying colors to pay back my parents sacrifices. To those who have tried and have lost, do not despair. There is always a time for winning and a time for losing. There's always a reason the way things turn out to the way they are. Everyone wants to win but it is beyond your control - you can only try your best. I congratulate you for trying, never mind if you did not win, whats important is you have tried your best. You should learn not to measure yourselves against the awards you did not receive; doing so would make you lead very unhappy lives. Just find joy in doing your best - not measured by someone else but measured by you. For those who have never tried to compete because they believe they neither have the skill nor the intelligence, that is not so - you'll never know what you've got until you try. No matter how simple we are, we are still creations of God, we are here for a very significant role; you may not be the awardee, but you can be the awardee's best friend. I would like to share a part of Douglas Malloch's poem which runs this wayWe can't all be captains; we've got to be crew,There's something for all of us here,If you can't be a highway, then just be a trail,If you can't be the sun be a star;It isn't by size that you win or fail - Be the best of whatever you are.Right now, I guess some of you have doubts about what lies ahead in the future. Can i afford to face the challenges that I may encounter? you may be asking yourself. Well, as you think, so you become.Regardless of the barriers, and believe me, you will never run out of those, as long as you believe in yourself and stay committed in achieving what you really want, theres no way you can fail. I believe, it is in this principle that my parent stand through in raising us, their children. I am very proud to say that I have been raised by two people whose income is so fickle to support my education. My father is a fisherman then and my mother is a plain housewife. But even though, they did not mind their meager resources in pursuing their dream to send us to school. And true enough, even if Im the only one who was able to finish college, but Im still very proud of them because even out of their very little income, they were able to let me finish my college education accompanied by the two things I only had way back then: opportunity and faith. I grabbed every opportunity that came my way, whether it may be library books because I cannot buy my own books, scholarships because were not rich, paid tutorials for my projects and daily fares. Students, there are so many ways, if we only explore, in order to attain our ambitions in life. All we have to do is to believe that we will be able to do it and one day we will be standing triumphantly. Parents, I am very sure that these students here have their own aspirations in life. You dont really need all those money to send them to college and realize their dreams. All that you have to do is to guide them, support them and inspire them to achieve what they are able to achieve. After all, each one of us is capable of achieving something.My dear students, Im telling you what i have achieved, not to brag about it, but hopefully to effect encouragement. That, no matter what station in life you are in, you still would make it through. It is only a matter of determination. Times could be rough but then you have to be tough to deal with it. Presently, I am your IT chairman and a proud educator. I have dreamt for it and my parents gave their all-out support ever since I conceived that dream in me. What I have and what I am right now might not be an achievement worthy of a celebration for other people but for me, it is something that I could dream somebody at my age can achieve.

I'd like to close with this message: Life can never be all wins. Sooner or later, everyone will fall short at something important to them - whether it be a job, a dream, a relationship. Let failure in one endeavor make you better at another area. Let failure also teach us about the need to give people second chances and that life is a road with unpredictable twists and unexpected tomorrows. To take advantage of what life has to offer, don't let yourself be destroyed by a defeat, or let others set limits on your ability to achieve. Thank you very much and have a good day everyone.