The following is the valedictory address delivered by Yumi L. Briones (BS CH ‘20), summa cum laude and valedictorian of the Ateneo de Manila University Class of 2020, during the Loyola Schools Commencement Exercises on October 11, 2020.

To Fr. Primitivo Viray, SJ, Provincial Superior of the Society of Jesus in the Philippines; to Fr. Jose Ramon Villarin, SJ, University President of Batch 2020; and to our Commencement speaker, The Most Reverend, Pablo Virgilio David, DD, Bishop of the Diocese of Kalookan, thank you for joining us today. Hello fellow batchmates, University administrators, faculty, staff; and our families and friends watching from home. Thank you all for being here.

Let’s get it out of the way: This is weird. I mean, we’re graduating at home over the internet. I’m giving the biggest speech of my life in front of a green screen in my bedroom. When the school released the memo about online graduation, I felt the collective sigh from the batch. We know it’s the best we can do right now, but part of us still wanted to have that sweaty graduation in the covered courts; to symbolically end where we began in first year.

If you’re trying your best to be thankful despite the circumstances, that’s great—but it’s also okay to feel frustrated. It’s natural to feel that way whenever there’s a difference between what we want and what we get. Now that we’re in quarantine, that frustration is more real than ever.

I realized this after reading a post from Denise Borja, who’s one of our batchmates and a really great artist. She wrote about how there are two things in her room: A screen and a window. The screen—be it a TV, or laptop, or a phone—takes her to a faraway place, to a different world where she wishes she could be. But when the screen turns off, it reflects her window back to her, and her window shows her the real world. Like Denise, we have screens showing us what we want but don’t have. And we have windows, showing us what we do have right now.

I think now more than ever, we’re all wishing we lived in a better world—a world that’s more peaceful, more loving, more kind. But in reality, our world is falling apart. When we look out the window, we see a pandemic, poverty, and injustice. 

So there’s a difference between the world we want and the world that we live in. Sometimes, the difference hits us harder than usual. It disturbs us and makes us feel in our gut that the world needs to be better.

For example, when I was really young, my mom took me to the zoo. There were monkeys, crocodiles, and my favorite: Otters; and then there was an empty space. I checked the sign, and it said, Giraffe. So I asked my mom, “Mommy, where’s the giraffe?” She asked the zookeeper, and he told us, “Well, the giraffe is dead.” We said, “Why?” He said, “It ate a piece of plastic and died.” And I’ll always remember that day. Because I used to play with these little animal toys, imagining a world where they had names and lives and friends, like Madagascar. But that day, a real life giraffe was dead. If you trace it back in time, you can pinpoint the exact moment someone decided to drop a plastic bag on the ground and it fluttered into the giraffe’s space. I was shattered.

Another story from one of our batchmates—let’s call her K. K had a labandera who brought her daughter Ri with her when she came to work. Ri was five years old, but she didn’t know numbers, letters, colors—nothing. Ri’s mom never talked to her—she always slapped her or pulled her hair. One day, Ri and her mom just left the house. K’s neighbors saw them sleeping on the streets, the mom getting drunk all day. So K’s family took Ri back into the house. They spent months teaching her a few colors, a few numbers, and a few good manners. It wasn’t easy, but K told me, “I keep reminding my parents that if we can change at least one kid’s future, we should.”

Those are just a couple of examples that make us realize that the world is very different from the ideal world of our imaginations. Maybe you had a similar experience in immersion, or maybe you saw something on the news that shook you to the core. It wouldn’t be surprising these days. Whatever it was, it’s like a moment of clarity where you realize—this can’t be the good place. But it also makes you ask, what can I do to make it better?

Batchmates, I know we’re all feeling frustrated with the way things are. I’ve seen your Instagram stories and Facebook posts. I’ve had conversations with a lot of you about this. That’s also how I know that we all have it in us to cause change.

Many of you started in Ateneo, leading orgs and projects that made an impact in the school community and beyond. Some of us are still in school, like me. K, from my story earlier, is in law school right now, studying to make a change in the government for people like Ri and her mom.

Some of us are starting businesses, which is very Atenean—and that’s great. Michael Porter once gave a TED Talk—one of my favorites—about how we often lack resources to solve social problems. But what business can do is create resources called profit when it meets its own needs. I’m starting a business called Savon Cleaning Solutions with Dani, Mike, and Ian—our batchmates. We’re selling hand soap you can refill instead of throwing away plastic bottles all the time. I’m dedicating that to the giraffe from my childhood. My best friend Migui’s business is selling drinks made with lambanog, and their mission is to empower Filipino farmers.

Some of us are getting into government work, like my friend Jt who interned under a congressman recently, and who’s interning under a senator now. And we can all do our part for the government by voting.

Some of us are volunteering and donating. Kia and Jaime started Bake Sale for Better PH so that talented people could bake cookies and cakes—and the rest of us could buy them knowing that our money is going towards a good cause, like feeding our frontliners.

The point is our batch is very capable of working towards a better world. We should be, after spending four years in an institution committed to making us men and women for others. I think now is the time to thank the people who made that happen. So let’s give a hand to our Ateneo professors, to our formators for INTACT, NSTP, JEEP, and PRAXIS, to our ates and kuyas all over campus, to the University administrators and staff, to Father Jett, who is also graduating with us, to Rizal, to St. Ignatius, to our families, and to God—who has made everything possible. On behalf of Batch 2020, thank you all for changing our little world.

Now before I end, I want to address something. When we talk about changing the world, we can’t help feeling like we have to do these big things—big, grand acts of goodness—things we see on our TV screens. Well, back in the 90’s, there was a guy who was in a very famous TV show. His name was Bojack Horseman, and this is what he said:

“All I know about being good I learned from TV. And in TV, flawed characters are constantly showing people they care with these surprising grand gestures. And I think part of me still believes that’s what love is. But in real life, the big gestures aren’t enough. You need to be consistent, you need to be dependably good. […] You need to do it every day, which is so…hard.”

You see, when you love someone, it’s not the big gestures that matter most. It’s the consistency. When you’re trying to change the world, it’s the same thing. You have to make an every day decision to love—even if it’s not recognized, even if it’s never featured on TV, even if it isn’t perfect. You just have to choose love every single day. And that’s the hard part—doing it every day, but once you do that, it gets easier.

So Batch 2020, congratulations to us all! It’s been a rough year, but we can finally call ourselves college graduates. In a while, we can all get back to watching Netflix on our phone or laptop screens. 

But let’s also remember to look out our windows. Look into the real world and ask yourself: How can I change this world into a more loving place every day?

And when you decide what you’re going to do, don’t worry too much about getting it perfect. In the words of Uncle Iroh—and my personal yearbook quote—“Perfection and power are overrated. I think you are very wise to choose happiness and love.”

Thank you all so much, and may God go with us all.