(Intro)

Good morning/afternoon, everyone. My name is Katrina Hernandez, and like every single one of you, I
too was once a student of this school.

Before anything else, I would like to congratulate every single one of you for being successful
individuals. I can see that many of these fresh faces have faced a lot of obstacles to get to this point of
their lives. For anyone who’s still wondering as to why I’m here, I was given the chance to attend this
ceremony to give you all a couple of words for the future ahead.

So, how are you? How does it feel like to finally be in this moment? I know that a lot of you sacrificed a
lot of your time and energy to get to this point in life. I know that even your parents at the back (or
other family members) as well as the teachers here are also relieved to see you achieve your goals.

It's refreshing, isn't it? After all those hours of studying, after all those efforts that was poured down for
your works, after all the moments that you spent with your fellow classmates to accomplish your goals,
you finally reached the end of the road.

Although, I know that a couple of you are a bit afraid of what is on the other side. It's understandable, I
too felt the same hesitance that you are all feeling right now. But worry not, for it is just another road
with a couple of new obstacles. Yes, these are just another set of new challenges that we as humans
have to go through in order for us to live a long fulfilling life.

(Body/Story)

As a student, I had a lot of experiences back in the day that made me realize the importance of school
and how you would live your life through it. I actually had a moment back then that basically
summarized the importance of it.

As you all know, having classes that involves making food is probably one of the most anticipated
lessons for almost every student. And I was no different. So the moment I skimmed through the pages of
my TLE book that contained the new lectures for the new quarter, I, as well as my other classmates, got
really excited.

Everything went smooth for the first couple of days. The lessons that were discussed actually made me
relaxed for once because not only were they interesting, but the teacher rarely had any oral recitations
–which, by the way, is something I know that gets almost all student stressed. So you could say that I
really had fun time. But that serenity didn't last long.

One day, our teacher gave a new announcement regarding about a task that we were supposed to do.
The task was quite lengthy but doable as it involved us to study about the different kinds of recipes and
kitchen equipment in the book. Since we had groups during that time, our leader decided to split the
tasks between the members even though our teacher never advised for us to do it. We simply agreed to
it just so that we wouldn’t need to do too much work. But by taking advantage of the easy-going
situation, and dodging some works that were given to us, we were left with nothing but despair.

After a single week passed, we were in the phase where we had to do our tasks on by hand while being
outside the classroom. Despite that fact, we never really thought about it too much until we got to the
actual activities. And all that I can say about the experience was that it was not something I could
describe with the word “nice”. Because of the fact that we underestimated the importance of proper
preparation, we had troubles with keeping up with the situation.

On the first few days, almost half of the things that we did were done without us actually having any
idea of its context and purpose. There was actually a moment were one of my fellow group members
tried using an old rubber spatula for frying things (which almost melted it), while the other almost
poured the wrong ingredients on a bowl that was about to be used for something else. And during all
these moments of struggling, our communication skills as a group were not the best, so it didn’t really
help our situation. One of the reason why this all happened was because we deliberately avoided
working hard. The task that our teacher gave us on the week before this would have helped us in being
knowledgeable enough to handle the kitchen. But because we decided to split it, our knowledge was
incomplete, and thus, we had no choice but to depend on the others –which isn’t something that any of
you should do. The moral lesson of it all is that you should work hard to be as efficient as you can be.
Having to avoid being dependent on the others is also a must. But thankfully, after adjusting for a couple
of days, we were still able to pull through all of it with a decent grade.

(Conclusion)

If you want to enjoy your moments while also being successful about it at the same time, be sure to be
dedicated, passionate, and sincere about it. Life is painful, it drains your soul, it sometimes make you
lose all you motivations in doing anything, I know. But it will be more of a burden if you won't do
anything good later on. Work hard, for every task you are given is essential for not only your goals, but
for yourself as well. Be passionate, so that you will find the true meaning of every moments that you'll
have while also finding the fun out of it at the same time. And lastly, please be sincere about it. If you
want to set foot on the other side, be honest not only to yourself, but to the others as well. Because the
only ones who truly seek their goals without any hesitance or malice intents will be the ones who can
accomplish it with a content heart.

As long as you keep on working hard, no matter how big or small your challenges may be, it will all be
paid off in the end. Doing this can help you push yourselves towards the epilogue that you ever so desire
to have. After all, your lives are like a single empty sheet of paper. You only have one. You don't know
when you'll be given a new one. Honestly, even I, or anyone out there, is certain that it can actually
happen. I'm not saying that you should be overly cautious with your lives right now. No, what I'm saying
is the complete opposite. Life is something that you have to balance. While living, you are basically
standing on a plank. If one side of it is a bit too heavy, or vice versa, you may fall out of your feet. So do
what you think is right for yourself so that you will be able to live a long fulfilling life with little to no
regrets. Write the greatest story that you can think of for yourself on that single sheet of paper.

That is all thank you.