MY CLAIM ON THE SALUTATORY SPEECH ISSUE

So the salutatory speech issue was over the media for the past few days and it really went viral.

Upon reading several posts about it, I must admit that the kid is someone to be admired for fighting and standing firm to her belief. And I believe, this is something that one must learn, to know how to be  courageous enough to fight and go against the rotten system of the society and I really admire her for that. 

However, we cannot judge the issue of her being cheated on just by knowing one side of the story. 

Additionally, there will always be a right place and time in everything... and claiming for one's right to be ahead of others specifically on a  "graduation" or "commencement exercise" is definitely not a right time and not a right place. 

It could be true and it could also be a one-sided claim, regardless of the credibility of the so called grading issue, a person should not be passive and must learn to do something and fight for what you deserve with the right claim, right judgment, right place and time and graduation is not the right place to fully express one's thoughts and the salutatorian is neither the right person to judge whether he/she deserves the rank.  Philippines is a free country. I know, but just what I said, there will always be a proper place and process in everything. 

                             

and to the dearest salutatorian,

believe it or not,  I know the feeling of being the second best, the first loser among any others  that's why I also fear myself of being not good enough because I got tired being not the best of the best. At some point, I also had experience the feeling of knowing that I deserve more but you must also learn that, that's how life works. Everything has its purpose and besides you still got a lot of time to learn the importance of compassion vs competence. And honestly, you should be grateful, I just remembered myself, the moment that your video spread into the social media... When I was in your age, years ago, I was asked to prepare a valedictory address, I wrote it very well, hoping that I would have the chance to share my insights to my fellow graduates, but I was not given the chance because I did not end up being the valedictorian. However, a kid kept on dragging her mother towards me and told me that "someday I wanted to be like you", it was a bittersweet scenario knowing that you have been defeated yet a kid keeps on telling you that he wanted to be like you. Anyway, you are fortunate, really fortunate that you were given the chance to speak the speech that you have prepared for, being the second best is not bad, you just got to learn the art of acceptance and by the time that you'll be facing the real world after your college graduation, you will realize that grades or medals won't define you and it won't definitely make you more or less of a person. It is a bragging right but it won't make you ahead of others. 

When the time comes that you'll be interviewed for a job position, they won't ask you on how many medals have you earned, what is your grade, how many times you became the first. It won't be that way, you just got to prove everybody else that you can and you deserve it and you won't be able to convince them that you deserve the position just by showing your grades. There's more to life than that. 

Many people says that grades measure how smart you are but the truth is, it only measures your linguistic and logical-mathematical thinking. Grades won't reflect who you are or what will you become. That's another problem from the society, we must not correlate and link one's grade and one's value as human being. The balance between the art of acceptance and fighting for what you deserve should also be learned.

Life is a challenge and not a competition, be someone who strives hard to be successful and not someone who aims higher to be ahead of others. 

Moreover, you're still someone to looked up to for having a brave stand, speaking your mind and having the courage to point out and enlighten a lot of people about the rotten system that mainly causes the cancer of the society.