Graduation day  - Word of thanks

First of all I would like to greet all the parents, relatives and friends, on behalf my co-graduates. It had been a long, hard road to reach graduation and I know your presence here is greatly appreciated.  My job as a graduating student standing in front of you now is to reminisce with you what happened along the years as we were growing up within the premises of Padre Annibale School. What an interesting eight or nine years they have been! As I look back to my kinder year and remember the first time I stepped into my new home which is Padre Annibale School I make a deep breath filled with gratitude to the Lord for having blessed us throughout these years. Who could forget the pupils who were crying while  entering the classroom for the first time  because they were unable to detach from their parents?  Who could forget the motherly loving touch and understanding of the Sisters and our teachers whenever we cried or we did tantrums? And the years went on and we survived and graduated from the preparatory level. As early as three or four years old, we have learned a precious prayer dear to the heart of Padre Annibale and to the heart of each student of this school which we, the graduates,  will never forget in our lives that is, to pray for more holy vocations in the Church with this prayer, “send, O Lord, holy apostles into your Church”.  As I entered another milestone of my life, I had the same classmates from the Preparatory level with the addition of new ones. I don’t think I could have ever imagined having such a diverse group of people as my classmates.  But there is one word that can be used to describe our long years of togetherness and I think we all know what the word LOYALTY means.

 For my part, despite  the monetary and financial difficulties of my parents they still sent us to school here at Padre Annibale School up to this time. And for this, I would like to thank my beloved parents, my father, my mother who works abroad so we can go to school. She came home just to witness this memorable occasion, my relatives, my family and friends who supported me in the absence of my mother, my advisers and teachers from Kinder I to Grade VI, the Sisters especially those who were our teachers, our Directress Sr. Dolores Acluba and the principal Sr. Eva Marie Briosos, my classmates who in one way or another supported me.

There is much to say but there are no other words to utter if not to tell everyone our deepest gratitude for having been reared in this school. Let us continue to look up to our Saint Hannibal as a teacher, a model after Jesus,  Mary and Joseph.

Let us pray for one another and again, Thank you very much, may the Lord reward you and I hope to see you as we continue another chapter of our life. 

                                                              Mary Rose Divine Lumagbas