aN iNsPiRaTiOn

(this is an excerpt from the speech delivered by Manny V. Pangilinan at the Ateneo School of Management and School of Science and Engineering commencement rites on March 24, 2006 and published by the Philippine Star on April 9, 2006 at www.philstar.com)

"Before I close, I’d like to make a personal request.

I’d like to ask each of you a favor. Give me bragging rights. Do something great. Sometime in the future, I want to hear some incredible thing you’ve done. And I’d like to brag that I spoke at your graduation.

In return, I offer you a few more pieces of advice. Keep it real. Stay true to what’s best in yourself, to the best of your experience here at the Ateneo. Trust your instincts. Believe in yourself. Engage in sports, you’ll need it as you age. Make art, or at least, value it.

Be brave. Be bold. Find something that moves you or pisses you off, but do something about it. You have a voice, speak up. Take a stand for what’s right. Make a change. You may not always be popular, but you’ll be part of something larger and greater than yourself. Besides, making history is cool, isn’t it?

But I also want to offer a warning: you will meet people who’ll entice you to compromise your principles. They’ll try to seduce you and distract you with money, power, security and perhaps, most dangerously, a sense of belonging. Don’t let them; it’s not worth it. You can have genuine values and still get that job. You can have a conscience and still make money.

Let me send you off with one final thought.

I was born poor, but poor was not born in me. And it shouldn’t be born in you either. You can make it. Whatever you may wish to do with your future, you can make it. It gets dark sometimes, but morning comes always. Suffering breeds character. Character breeds faith. In the end, faith will not disappoint.

You must not disappoint."