Ubi Concordia, Ibi Victoria

Jeinard Blake C. Vertudazo

It is currently possible that every one of us is passing through a difficult situation.

Crisis today is escalating, financially, spiritually, within our families, here in the premises
of the school, and almost in everywhere. It is not only difficult situation we are facing but
honestly speaking; we don’t even know the things that are going to happen. The future is
not certain to all of us. It is vague.

I stand before you today as one of the participants of this oratorical contest. But,
more than this, I stand before you today as a young Marist student to remind ourselves of
this valuable truth that creative and united interaction is a key towards facing the future.

Did you know that many of us nowadays are experiencing great maladies? It is for
the reason that many of us are not willing to take responsibilities we are ought to do. We
keep on hiding in our comfort zones for us not to do the things we have to do. We keep
on running from our tasks. We keep on redirecting things. We keep on moving
backwards. And we don’t even realize that there are many other innocent people who are
experiencing horrible things because of our carelessness.

A different personality makes every individual unique from the rest. And this
uniqueness sometimes triggers an awful quote. Because of these divergences many of us
are acting another way which sometimes distracts our lives from the moral side of living.
We keep on looking only unto ourselves and we delimit stuffs on our own. It is a fact that
humans are egocentric, a fact that leads to the partition of society and a fact that makes
everything disintegrated.

The intramural done annually promotes sportsmanship and camaraderie but the
emergence of misunderstandings and poor participation of the apprentices contributes to
the disintegration of the studentry of this institution. A theory of two heads are better than
one, when applied comes with a great positive outcome, when ignored comes with a
devastating clash. The officers of the different colleges got dissimilar ideas and
capabilities. When these dissimilarities clash promotes cataclysmic effect which can lead
to failure in meeting the desired goal.

Every individual in a group should think for the good of all. There is a saying that
goes, “United we stand, divided we fall.” If we keep on thinking only for our own good,
we will not be able to reach our destination. We are not an island, we can’t stand alone,
and therefore we should be working in a team with synergism to meet the terms.
Divisions make absurdity, and absurdity leads us to nothingness. We must be united for
us to withstand the torrent winds that come our ways. The one is the many, the many are
the one.

Ubi Concordia, ibi Victoria. Where is the unity, there is the victory. We need a
sense of unity for the sake of human welfare. We necessitate a sense of individuality for
the betterment of our own dignity. Victory comes from the skillful hands that work
together, from the minds that shares thoughts with each other, and from the attitudes that
enhances personality of one another.

All humans on earth are one. We come from the same family of common
ancestors. We are, in a literal sense, brothers and sisters, and like brothers and sisters we
depend on each others love, care and responsibility. We are interdependent not just in our
families but as well as in other communities that surrounds us.

There are three points I want to stress out briefly. First, live life in a simple
manner. Let us be contented of what we have earned, what we reached, and what we have
attended. Though dreaming high isn’t that bad at all, for us to be victorious in any forms,
simple life is a stepping stone. Second, live life with the sense of unity. Fighting against
our neighbor just prop ups division and conflicts. Let us be nice to people on the way up,
‘cause we’ll meet the same people on the way down. Nothing is impossible if many
hands are working hand-in-hand in achieving vast developments. Third, be creative in
everything that you do. I’m not telling that each of us should indulge ourselves to arts and
crafts. What I mean is we must be inventive in any ways for us to solve certain problems.
This will equip us with the necessary shields and armors in facing the uncertain future.

Let us be united. For with unity there is strength. And when there is strength there
is power. And with power nothing will come into our way that can’t be solved. Let us
inculcate in our hypothalamus the learnings we have gotten from school, from our
parents, and from the experiences we encounter in everyday of our lives.

Hermanas, hermanos, let us live life the way God wants us to live.