“A graduation ceremony is an event where the commencement speaker tells thousands of students dressed in identical caps and gowns that 'individuality' is the key to success.”
- Robert Orben
Every time I smell the aroma of the graduation season which, as of this writing, is now drawing closer and closer, I always remember what U.P. Diliman Chancellor Sergio Cao once said: “There’s a difference between getting a degree and being educated.” It never fails to leave me with the impression that if somebody is about to enter college, he or she must aim both the degree and what Sergio Cao emphasized as real 'education'. There is a clear demarcation line between the two and for people like me who have struggled a lot just to reach this point, it's easy to admit that the essence of graduation rites is more than the degree or diploma you earn but rather in its role as a crucial time to reminisce every single hardship you have earned just to have an education and those that made you stronger, mature, and more prepared than ever to get out of your comfort zone and start following your path outside school. Five years ago, I entered MCU with just the thought of getting a bachelor's degree. I'm lucky that I'm about to leave with both a degree and an education.
Unbeknownst to most of my contemporaries, I spent one and a half years of my college life studying biology in a state university and then stopped for about 6 months to work in a local restaurant as a crew. The following school year, I enrolled in MCU and studied nursing for the next 3 years until I went out of school for the second time around this time to work as a call center agent in Makati. We were evicted at that time from our apartment that's why I have to voluntarily work and help our family build a house first. After 6 months of struggle, I was terminated from my job and was diagnosed with mild tuberculosis, leaving me unemployed and depressed. But due to my parent's encouragement, I went back to school to finish what I have started before. But life, with its own twists and turns, never fails to test my character. Last December, my father, who have worked as an OFW for four years in Saudi Arabia, died of heart attack 2 days before Christmas and almost 3 months before my graduation. This is my story and although I don't know Sergio Cao personally, I strongly believe that the lessons and courage I have gained from these experiences are the same things that he referred as 'education'. I never wanted to sound melodramatic but I thought that a great example should come straight from the horse's mouth. And after the 22 years of my existence, I can proudly say that I've had my own fair share of struggles that taught me a lot of things you just can't learn by simply staying inside school.
As my final days in this educational institution slowly creep in, I have realized that different students have different perceptions about this solemn ceremony. Some believes that it is just a transient ceremony done just for formality's sake when people finally wear their academic attires and throws their mortarboards cheerfully above the air. Some pessimists see it as a simple rite of passage that will welcome students to the world dominated by unemployed and underemployed citizens. Some academic achievers, on the other hand, put more importance to awards and distinctions above anything else, blinded by their belief that impressive grades will assure them of success in life. From my own vantage point, graduation is more than a diploma, more than any awards or medals, and even beyond its usual definition as a 'start' of a new beginning. It is, for me, a ticket to success, a key that will lead anyone to his niche as long as he uses his education to its full potential and believe that learning doesn't stop after graduation. Universities will give us the degree but none of them will automatically provide us the genuine education that takes real character and experience to be achieved.
Graduation can mean a lot of things to different people but one thing should be clear about it: gratitude is not enough to thank our parents and benefactors for the education that has a shelf-life of forever and will withstand the test of time. Few people are lucky enough to have been blessed with the gift of education. It doesn't matter what school you came from but how you use every single lesson that life and your school have inculcated to you. I hope everyone would see graduation the way I see it now. It's above every superficiality and empty interpretation. Life doesn't end where graduation stops. It persists and goes beyond diploma.
