I would like to share a short story about the potato, egg, and coffee beans. When put in boiling water, the potato becomes soft, the egg becomes hard, while the coffee melts. What does this teach us about life?
The boiling water represents challenges and problems that we will experience. If you react like the potato, it means you gave up and become soft and easy to smash, and anyone can easily control you.
Meanwhile, when you react like the hard-boiled egg, it means you don’t want to give up that you become hard like a boiled egg and become difficult to deal with. But if react like the coffee bean, you will embrace the situation and use it to your favor.
This is resilience or in Filipino, pagiging MATATAG, and this year’s End of the School Year Rites focuses our K to 12 graduates who were molded by a resilient education foundation.
Through the MATATAG: Bansang Makabata, Batang Makabansa Agenda, the Department of Education (DepEd) pledged to be matatag for and with our learners, educators, partners, and stakeholders in establishing a nation that values its youth, and a Filipino youth that values its nation.
Graduation is a milestone and a celebration for the graduates for rising up to the challenges of blended or distance learning prompted by the need to prioritize our health and safety against the COVID-19 pandemic. We celebrate the resilient education foundation that is summed up by the collective efforts of the national government through the Department of Education, through our education partners including private schools, the local government units and the community, the teachers and school officials who have innovated and adopted new ways in delivering education, parents and relatives who have provided the support in every way possible, classmates and friends who helped them survive every sleepless night before an examination of submission of outputs, and most importantly all the graduates, who have persevered and remained committed to achieving your goals in life, and that includes completing basic education. Today we highlight every learner's achievement that mirrors an education that succeeds amid all difficulties.
On the occasion of their graduation, the learners must celebrate and reap the rewards of their dedication and hard work. They must remember that life will always put them in a pot of boiling water. It is important that they develop a sense of peacefulness in knowing that somewhere along the way, they will encounter difficult moments and it’s up to them to adapt and defeat the trials. Their family, friends, teachers, and everyone who loves you will always be there to support and remind them that they should not give up no matter what.
As K to 12 graduates molded by a resilient educational foundation, Class of 2023 is equipped with the strength and determination of a Filipino learner possessing the skills, values, and temperament to endure adversities and take on all opportunities for improvement and success, enabling them all to be a Bansang Makabata in a Makabatang Bansa.
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Congratulations to my dearest son, Marco Miguel Anthony for having successfully completed elementary school! You will be on the road to a new chapter in your life, and that is your high school years. Remember that we are always here to support and guide you on your journey and always remember to be a good person despite of all the challenges that you will experience.