Photo edited in CANVA
A gift of hard work and excellence. The last high school in our family has finally graduated! Her name is Jaica, my youngest sister. She graduated on May 30, 2024. It was a journey for her as I noticed how she had cried for her studies. Early in the morning, we have already gotten ready. It was very unusual that since my graduation, my father did attend my sister's graduation, which has not been his thing for the last few years because he has work, but I’m glad he had a chance to put medals on my sister, whereas he put mine as well.
Their graduation started with marching; my mother is the one who walked with her while my father parked the car. It takes time because there’s a lot of vehicles there. When I saw my father, I said that we should get inside, and within a couple of minutes, he’s no longer with me to find out he’s already on the inside. I saw my boyfriend’s mother as his stepmother, who is in the same batch as my sister. I greeted his mother and congratulated his sister as I bid my goodbye. It is very crowded, so I can’t really get through it smoothly.
I check my phone and read my mother's message “go here and use the back door, where are in the center or the stairs.” As I finally see them, I sit in with them. It was awkward because there’s a lot of people who take a glimpse of me. My sibling is a Humms, which stands for Humanities and Social Sciences. I witnessed the ceremony start with the welcome address of one of the ICT students.
The municipality mayor also shared his words of wisdom with those graduate students, as he declared that the two with the highest honors would receive 5,000 pesos, while the two with high honors would receive 1,000 pesos. The two with honors are not included in the list because there’s a lot of those with honors who graduated. The guest speaker was also introduced with a really long message and the awarding of medals to all the students. The awarding would always start with STEM, which stands for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. A science class, where my second siblings also came from that.
So when Jezebel arrived at the venue and bought burgers and tea drinks, she didn’t see where we were seated, even though I kept calling her. When she finally saw me, she was already in the upper part of the bleachers. And she can’t go down because what she brings is very heavy, so I have to be with her to help. Afterwards, the master of ceremonies still kept on calling the students names.
My siblings are still in the far line because Humms has the largest population in the whole school compared to the other strand, so the reason why they are on the other side.
While the ceremony is still ongoing, I feel hungry because I did not really eat well while in the house, so I grab the burger and eat it, and with the C2, when I feel full, I check my phone to see the time, and when we saw it was her turn, her father started to take a step toward her as he is the one who will put the awards on her.
Moreover, after the awarding, they invited an alumni to share her wisdom perspective. And the top one of their batch. Hence, we are very proud of Jaica because she excelled in her studies and received a total of 3 medals: 1 for high honors and 2 for academic organization awards. 
Moreover, my mother brought me outside because she will withdraw money from BDO, but the machine has no longer got money, so as I said, you should go inside first because I will buy pizza, and she asked if I have money. I answered, dudz, give me money in GCash worth $1,000 as a graduation gift. Going back I had bump into and old friends that I haven’t seen quite a long period of time.
At 12:00 pm, lunch time, the ceremony is still ongoing, as I noticed that the led wall with the pictures of the graduates didn’t match every time their names were called to give awards and diplomas. Whereas I had thought that the time they have chosen is not an ideal one because when it’s already 1:00 pm, the ceremony is still continuing. And the outside venue is the grade 10 completers already at the outside for their moving up ceremony. 
The last part of the ceremony is where Jose Marie Chan, the legendary OPM star, gives his greetings to the graduates virtually, in which he congratulates them, gives words of wisdom, and dedicates a song to them entitled “Constant Change.”
Afterwards, the event ends with the exit of colors, and the parents congratulate the graduates and give them flowers, money garland, and gifts.
I give my sister a single rose, and my other sibling also gives her a DIY rose bouquet made of tissue and other materials.
It was announced that they are going to have a class picture as my sister and her friends want to take group photos with their co-organization, but because of the crowd, they can’t spot each other as I offer them to take photos for them and take photos of us as well.
Now that she’s going to take another step where pressure and other problems will occur, I pray that she will remain strong as she will face issues in the future, as with my second siblings. I know both of you always did your very best to make our parents proud.
Lots of love
Ate ❤️
To all graduates of class 2024, Congratulations!
Adios, Hivers!