Welcome Address

To the Chairman of the Board of Trustees and his member, to our guest of honor, Mrs. Jovita Baladjay, to Mr. Gregorio Gaurana, our principal, beloved teachers and staff of Salaman Institute, beloved parents, dear classmates and friends, fellow graduates, and to all here who share the joys of graduation with us, Welcome and Good Afternoon.

The most significant event to a student's life to take place is no other than graduation. It is the culmination of one's hard work and struggle to attain knowledge and perhaps in the process... wisdom.And since it is the end of a certain process or stage in our education, it brings about a mixture of joy and pain. Joy for the attainment of one's goal and pain for the end of something that one has been used to.

High school life is the cradle of one's youth. For us, Salaman Institute, our Alma Mater, is the womb that nurtured our transition from childhood to addthood. It is the base from where we explore the possibilities that have been opened to us. It is the well from which we peer above into the light outside. And this womb has been good to us, caring for us when we seem to be weary in spirit, nurturing us in our moments of weakness, enlightening us in our ignorance, teaching us the values we need to face the strange world outside and we are grateful for this.

So, we thank you and I thank you. Thank you dear friends for the care and support. Thank you dear classmates for the camaraderie and belongingness. Thank you dear teachers for the knowledge and wisdom and all those lessons you have given us in which we will all be grateful for someday. Thank you dear parents for giving us this chance, for being good parents and for being always there when we need you. And most of all, thank you God for all your blessings.

Having said all that, I have also to say something about Salaman Institute. It is our Alma Mater after all. It is the first high school in Lebak. A part of life of our community. But what is Salaman Institute? It is for the principal, the teachers, the students, the parents, and the alumni. Why is that?For there is no Salaman Institute withoutthe skills and abilities of our principal. For there is no Salaman Institute without the teachers who dedicated and sacrificed their time and skills for the betterment of this institution. And there is no Salaman Institute without the students who try to make this school proud of them; and there is no Salaman Institute without the parents who supported it much from the moment it is founded until now; and there is no Salaman Institute wihout its alumni who tried to give back to the school what it owes much to it. Salaman Institute is all this people and Salaman Institute is people.Salaman Institute is Lebak. To Salaman Institute, I say "mabuhay" and we wish you the best in the years to come.

So, it is time to say goodbye. For Salaman Institute, safe as it may be, warm as it may be, and yet we have to leave this womb. We have to end our time here in Salaman Institute. We have to say goodbye to friends for four years, fellow travelers in our path and dear and kind mates, though we have shared a lot we have to part. We have to say goodbye to our mentors, teachers we both hated and loved but respect much; we cannot do so but otherwise. As Shakespeare said, "Parting is such a sweet sorrow." Sweet indeed is the success brought by this graduation but sorrowful also the parting that it brings. We have to say goodbye like a larva going out of its cocoon to become a butterfly.

And so my dear parents, honored guests, in behalf of the graduating class, my dear friends and classmates, I welcome you to witness this ceremony. Very soon we shall march in this stage, one by one, to receive our diploma. And with that piece of paper, we end the life we spend here for four years.We welcome you now to say goodbye to each other.

Farewell, I say dear Alma Mater, farewell classmates and friends and I wish all of you good luck.May the years to come be kind to all of us and may God in His wisdom bless us with success. Thank you very much. Welcome.