Class 2013 Prophecy

CLASS 2013 PROPHECY

There are two doors. I looked on the door to my left and saw the glory of our achievements today, the toil and labor of our hands, a yesterday of pain and the yellowed eyes of memory.

I look on the door to the right and see great struggle and strife, nevertheless, a future of promise and hope. I enter the door and say hello to year 2024.

I have just eaten an eggs Benedict breakfast at the Crown Regency Hotel in Cebu. This hotel, I am told, is now owned by the emerging name in Philippine business: LNU-HRM Conglomerates. Formerly a single company that dealt with the Hotel and Restaurant Industry, it has since merged with the other companies formed by other HRM graduates to form a single powerful conglomerate, a new and world-class Philippine company.

I ride on the transport service to the airport. Once there, I am immediately greeted by a familiar face. It is Danica Julie Bague herself, my colleague who now owns her airlines, aside from a number of five-star hotels and restaurants here and abroad. Danica, however, is still humble and even takes the trip with me to Boracay where she is set to meet another set of investors for her new company.

And what a surprise when we come to Boracay. The new summer capital of the Philippines which is located in Aklan might as well be transferred to the Eastern Visayas, teeming as it is with Warays. And they are not your ordinary tourists, they are your restaurant and club owners, the THRM graduates of this batch. Almost every single business venture in Boracay is now owned by the still active and dynamic Tourism Circle. Before Danica meets with her investors, she stops for a chat with her friends, Arriane Jane, Mary Christine, Jake Anthony, Dailyn, Dheckie, Krysteen, Honey Grace, Chariza, James, and Sheryl Lynn. I bid goodbye and after sampling a few drinks in Allysa’s club, I move on to my next stop.

From there I ride on a banca to the island of Amanpulo, the priciest tourist destination in the country, where you will pay a hundred thousand pesos a night. But since I have a friend who owns the place and is kind enough to show me around, yes, it’s Renato Canes II, thankfully, the price is negotiable. Renato shows me around the island, where, just as my luck would have it, Ronnel Villacortes and Maria Angelica Villanueva, the models-turned-Tourism Ambassadors are just finishing a shoot for their new tourism video, of course, courtesy of ABCOM Productions, the leading film and television studio owned by the founding friends, Jellie Eve, Krizza, Kersey, Kevin, Marisse, Airra, Paul Neil, and Melnelyn.

I would have liked to stop for a while and catch up but the time is tight, and I still have new adventures on my itinerary. For that morning, it included going east to one of the islands in Bohol, where our very own TLE major, Maria Jobelle Albia has since put up her own TESDA-accredited Technical-Vocational school, where she also invited her HAE friends to teach. Some of the HAE graduates did not go to the Jobelle’s Tech-Voc school however; some of them stayed with Ms. Pamela Camagting and her new orphanage and home for the children and old men and women in Tacloban where they teach the children livelihood skills and provide leisure and hobbies for the old men and women. Ms. Pamela Camagting and her friends have since put up their network across the region, communicating with each other on a regular basis, doing their social work well, as always. For her work, Pamela, a Social Work Board Topnotcher, has been invited to a dinner with the most powerful governor of the country, the woman governor of Leyte, and the next DILG Secretary, Ms. Melinda Amoroto.

Meanwhile, Methylene Berida, after an international modelling stint, has realized that her true love is Biology, and has decided, together with her research partner, Brendon Joe Vivero, to study the Eastern Visayan seas and turn out researches that will be of help to the community. Along with their workmates, Anjerico, Cristina and Sharlene, they have already presented a research to the international community of the United Nations regarding the revitalization of the Philippine Seas and have been well applauded by the delegates which not only comprised of the scientific sector but also others, like the sports sector headed by the new Sports Ambassador and Olympic Gold medallist, Mr. Marlon Barbo and his sports colleagues and teammates from LNU, and of course including the education sector, with the Philippine delegate and Ambassadress to the UN, Ms. Mae Elizabeth Abella. Maebel, as I have known her, is now working with the BEED and BSED graduates of this batch who are now heads of schools towards new reforms in world education.

After touring the islands, I hurriedly go back to Tacloban where I am sure my e-mail would be just about to explode with messages, most of them, unfortunately, are spam, and therefore unimportant. Thankfully, Ruben Bert Pingol and his other programmer friends have promised me to fix this glitch and with the help of Sol Caldoza and company, have already launched the latest Windows OS, Windows 11. This latest edition has become exceedingly efficient at treating the problems the other versions of Windows OS has plagued us with. Where the previous versions have failed, the new Windows 11, thanks to our BSIT programmers, has succeeded. Already the Internet community is abuzz with talk of the efficiency of this OS. Performances of the world class chorale made possible by the former LNU Chorale, the members of the Marching Band, the Dance Company formed by the members of the LNU Dance Troupe and the Sirang Theater Ensemble can now be viewed without fear of viruses hacking into your system. In fact, with the aid of the Windows 11, these Performing Arts groups are beginning to make a name for their own in the international arena.

After checking my e-mail, I immediately go to the live-streaming website of the newest juicy talk show in town, Mornings with Dianne and Donna, yes, Dianne Elisa Manalastas and Donna Erika Navarro, to whom Kris Aquino has since passed her gift of gab and a flair for intrigue. After a morning of entertainment, I switch to the latest episode of the ANC Debates, now hosted by our AB PolSci graduates, with Ms. Jencar Joy Sita and Ms. Michelle Ann Putong as resident adjudicators.

After the show, I change immediately and go on to LNU, where they have recently reopened the Secondary Level. I see Ms. Abegail Bastes and Ms. Cherry Villasin, international ramp models, in the AudioVisual Hall. Eagle Scouts and International Jamboree Organizers Michael Antoni, Raymond Dogadoga, Dustin Gam, Sherneil Lianza and Diana Ruiz are also there for the Career Day. Interestingly, my former colleagues Joel Aldas, Jerome Puntod, Irene Mumar, Lennie Molate, Kathyreen Mauro, Jeselle De Luna, Regine Lantajo and Patrick del Valle have opened a SpEd Center in the University, with Ms. Remedios Gam as the Director. The new Sped Center is reputed to be the foremost and in the region and the country, the quality rivalling only that of Zapatera SpEd Center.

Before the Career Day program started, Jing as I like to call Ms. Gam, took me aside and updated me on our colleagues. As one of the first batch of 3NS Scholars, Jing has avidly followed the directions of the program and was glad to inform me that our BSED graduates have now gone to the other Normalite schools in the country. Jonel Salvacion, Daisy Pajares, Kristhen Solis, Pristine Arandela, Katrina Pal, Mark Paul Rosel and Shella May Baring have already been invited to teach in the West Visayas State University, Bukidnon State University, Palawan State University, Cebu Normal University and Philippine Normal University, especially since the current PNU President and President of the 3NS, Ms. Christina Gallaza knew from personal observation, the calibre of these educators. Together with Ms. Gallaza are May Jan Dacatimbang,  Menchie Arguelles, Joyce Ann Velasco, Robert Oquino and Roy Maldecino, as coordinators of the Erasmus Mundus program. Miss Maricar Tegero takes care of the Annual Cultural Showdown of the 3NS.

The other BSED graduates have now filled up posts in the LNU, some have even put up their own schools. Mr. Louiesito Magnaye, on the other hand, has since taken up his post as the CHED Chair.

With difficulty, I pull away from Jing’s stories and go to my last event for my jam-packed day. It is the grand reunion of the last batch of the BEEDBSED Double Degree Program and I am excited to see what they have all turned out to be after eleven years. The NatSci majors have taken up graduate degrees, with Sunny Lagmay and Analyn Gato leading them. Sunny, Analyn and Carnimf Tiu have been accepted at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to take their post-graduate studies. Jessica, ate Dean and Vanessa, these silent NatSci formidables, have already taken post-grad at the MIT, and are now teaching at CalTech. They visit the country every now and then. The Math people, on the other hand, have also done the same, and with a partnership with the BSIT programmers, are now working on making a super supercomputer that can contain all the information in printed material. Cristobal Rabuya, or Cris as he likes to be called, has become a multi-awarded Researcher in Mathematics and is currently deciding whether to accept the offer of Mensa International, the school for gifted people all over the world, or to stay in the Philippines and do more of research work. Glaiza, by the way, shouldered the cost of the grand party, as she has recently been made CEO of the Ayala Group of Companies, and is rumoured to marry one of its heirs. And my BEEDBSED English people, Jill, Aira, Zyrel, Earl, Martin and Darcy, have all become different, yet somehow the same. Zyrel and Earl’s ten page back to back wish list has long since been fulfilled and they now have their own gag show next to Martin’s late night talk show, Late Nights with Martin every Friday. Jill and Aira have already put up their own performing arts group and a theatrical school where they teach on weekends and in the summer, while teaching English at the Silliman University on weekdays. Darcy, who has since been with me on every trip we can possibly take together, to Paris and all over the world, has already written her first language book, which, as Jack Richards says, has made profound implications to language theory since Noam Chomsky came on the scene.

And me, I have just been running around to and fro, having adventures of my own, some of them I try to have concretely, physically, but I’m afraid most of them will be forever only in my mind unless I put pen to paper. And so I have tried to do so for the past ten minutes or so, as my BLIS publicity agents led by Ronel Chuca and Bella Cinco already pressure me for the publishing date of my first fictional novel, after a series of poetryand essay books. But I would have wanted this to be non-fiction, to be true to life. I would want these people to be just as I saw them to be when I entered the door on my right.

This is what will come to pass if we go out there and make history. Yes, words have a power of their own, but the thing is, it’s up to you who you will be; the important thing is you were not confined to what others expect you to be. You are given a choice.

There are two doors. The door on the left leads to confusion, blind servitude to the expectation of others. The door on the right leads to conviction, the need for individuality and freedom. But whichever door we may choose to enter, wherever we may wish to go, what’s important is to believe in our choice. According to Erik of Happy Feet 2, if we want it, we must will it. If we will it, it will be ours. All of this will happen because we choose so.