Its been a year. November 20, 2007 when the last PANA finals was held. On stage were five amazing individuals and the rest of a great great block a wave away, waiting for the final announcement so that we can go on with our lives and drink the night away.
After all, the five month sacrifice of having to drill through the rigidity of a PANA campaign finally exhausted the best of us. We toiled through more than 1/3 of the year to experience our right to be in the final 3 among the schools in Manila and top 5 among the country's best.
Upon announcing the winner, we just could not believe that after 5 years of barging into the finals, we have finally captured the PANA title. After the jumps, hugs, tears and laughter and when everything settled in, we finally realized that the journey is complete - we have achieved what no other Assumption College team has achieved - winning a national academic title.
Amidst the fanfare, guru asked me how it feels to lead the champs. I always answer philosophically and uttered something dharmic. "You will never know what comes out after this", I answered the legendary guru. And the legend simply quipped, "you have every right to be proud this year".
We prayed that day... happily this time to thank the Lord for this experience. We did not thank HIM for the championship, we were very happy to experience this together.
After all the two issues of AC Times, one from Philippine Star and a number from second line publications, the celebration piped down and we settled for what we should be embracing, the benefits from all of this -- winning in its truest sense. Conquering beyond our potentials.
I see 3A1, now 4A1, after the comm dept and the school celebrated a national championship faintly. They never bothered to complain about the level of celebration. I also never saw their egos bloat beyond "margin of error" and neither did I ever see them gloat about it around campus.
I see them struggling hard to cope with their thesis. After all the accolades, they remained humble. This is in expense of the realization that they are the very best in the advertising academia for the year 2007-08 and even the cherry picked competitors of "prime schools" cannot beat a mandated 3rd year group.
Camille, Izza, Cleo, Abie, Kaye, Erks, Russel, Gelly, Meg, Lali, Sushmits, Beerl, Lyza, Di, Monique among others proved to the whole world what winning is really all about. No frills, no bells and whistles, no self PR but just true blue internal development. Gladys anchored the great presentation with even a greater delivery that I have never seen in PANA history.
The true essence of being champions is not the trophy... it will never be. Its not about reaching the finals.... but a huge part of it is because 50% of the experience will come from there.
I have seen in my own eyes how these girls turned into responsible ladies (although they won't admit it) and how this whole experience changed the way they are. I would be a shameful winner if I were compared directly to them. This year when the3A1 08-09 girls did not qualify, they said "they will have their time sir." -- talk about class.
Through it all, they have surpassed themselves and proved once and for all what winning is really all about. For these girls, qualifying for the finals would not be enough brownies to call it an achievement. For them at that juncture, nothing less than a championship could have justified their potentials. And a championship they did bring home.
And they did it with smiles, laughters and a lot of light moments and have this route to the title A1 derful one.
Its every professors' dream to have a class like this and I was fortunate to have lived it .
Congratulations to A1 for brushing gold into the section we now call THE CRADLE OF CHAMPIONS" -- because you truly embodied what A1 is all about. PRIDE IN HARD WORK AND BEING TRUE CHAMPIONS. THEY ARE REALLY IN A CLASS OF ITS OWN
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