Pierce College Commencement 2014 – Student Speech Transcript Krishna Lou Ayungao

Good evening, everybody. Before anything else, I would like to thank my parents who are breaking their backs just to give me the best in life. My aunt, for challenging me intellectually since I was a kid. My family and friends, who have made me who I am today. My ASO family, and our awesome advisor, Curtis Smith. Of course, my professors that have made an incredible impact in my life: Professor Oborn, McKeever, Srichoom, Rosenberg, Roberts, Gend, Campbell, Ghiglia. And Professor Simon, although I never spoke with you outside my class, you changed my life just by teaching Anthropology. Last but not the least, I want to thank Jesus for being such an awesome and faithful God to someone so undeserving like me. I cannot count the days that I’ve cried in my sleep, and during Skype calls with my mom over the internet. It was like this every semester. From the very first to the very last. My mom would always tell me, “Just… just go home. We can’t pay your tuition anymore. We don’t want to be buried in debt.” To which I would always answer, “I just need a little bit of time. I’ll make it through. I’ll work another job. You don’t have to send me money. I just really want to graduate.” Most of my semesters at Pierce, I wouldn’t even be able to register online for classes because I haven’t been able to pay my fees on time. I have to crash 18 units every semester so I can graduate on time. I’d be at school from 7 in the morning to 10 at night, every day for the first few weeks of the semester. I know it sounds like an exaggeration, but this is a true story. I am international student from the Philippines. My family pays around 6 thousand dollars every semester for tuition. I would apply for scholarship after scholarship just to make it through. In the

end, I manage to do so. That even meant being homeless for a while, sleeping at other friends’ houses and grateful for their provision because I could not afford my rent, food, and transportation. All because I wanted to graduate and transfer. I dream of becoming an Anthropology professor someday. I dream of roaming the walls of the academia to be able to teach and be the same motivation that my professors have been for me. In a lot of ways, Pierce College has helped me through. Every day, when I wake up, I have a reason to go to school. I will be honest, it wasn’t always about learning, and more about getting As. But also because I have made wonderful relationships in this place that I would not trade for anything else. I was given the opportunity to serve my campus and my community and advocate causes dear to my heart. I was able to realize the things I really loved to do – which are fighting for human rights and talking about Anthropology. Before I came to Pierce, I was a child, in a figurative sense. I didn’t know how to focus on one thing, and I was not disciplined enough to attain my goals. This school has made me responsible. It wasn’t just about being excellent with my studies, or creating awesome and fun events on campus. It was about pushing myself beyond my limits and discovering what I am actually capable of doing. It has maximized my leadership, and it has made me trust myself that I can achieve whatever I want as long as I put my heart and mind to it. I believe one of the most important things that I have learned at Pierce that I can impart to you is the wise use of time. I want to quote David Foster Wallace’s best graduation speech of all time. [Are you ready? This is gonna be a long one.] He said, “Here’s something else that’s weird but true: in the day-to-day trenches of adult life, there is actually no such thing as atheism. There is no such thing as not worshipping. Everybody worships. The only choice we get is what to worship. And the compelling reason for maybe choosing some sort of god or spiritual-type thing to worship is that pretty much anything else you worship will eat you alive. If you worship money and things, if they are where you tap real meaning in life, then you will never be enough, never feel you have

enough. It’s the truth. Worship your body and beauty and sexual allure and you will always feel ugly. And when time and age start showing, you will die a million deaths before they finally grieve you… Worship power, you will end up feeling weak and afraid, and you will need ever more power over others to numb you to your own fear. Worship your intellect, being seen as smart, and you will end up feeling stupid, a fraud, always on the verge of being found out.” [Okay, the quotation ends there.] The reason why I quoted him is that it’s important to know what you worship, because that’s the one thing you will give most of your time to. Now, I am a very competitive person. I used to worship my intellect and success. And I measured my self-worth on the basis of success. Which is something you should not do. When I organize events, I want it to be more successful than my last one. There were times that I would just break down and cry because I have put too much on my plate. I would be organizing an event, and would have multiple exams and deadlines to meet. I didn’t even have the time for my family. A lot of times, I felt discouraged. Until now, I don’t know how I managed to get through – but being passionate and committed is an important thing. When you do something, give it your all, because you only have so much time, and you might never be able to do it again. If you’re volunteering to serve the homeless, do it with utmost sincerity. If you decided to commit to something, follow through, even when everybody else is leaving you behind. When you get a job, make sure you give it no less than your best. And when you love, love deeply. Be considerate and compassionate. Take risks and do hard things. But whatever you choose to do, make sure it matters. Because like I said, we only have so much time. Education can bring us success, but what good is success if we are lonely? Spend your time wisely, because the best thing in this world is having genuine relationships with people. To be honest, I really only wanted to be successful because I envied successful people around me. I was chasing the wind for a very long time. I wanted to be this and that. My parents

wanted me to get a high-paying job so I can care them when I grow older. Which is a wonderful duty to have as a daughter, by the way. There is nothing wrong with that only if we consider that we must live for what really matters most. Living a life wherein we enjoy work, and love what we do. We build relationships with people and have fun with them. We risk and we fail, but we are not afraid to try again. We don’t study just for the sake of getting by with the hopes of getting ourselves a good job just because this is how the world works, but we study because there is something about learning and being excellent that not only affects you but the people around you – your society, your family, and your future generation. This girl standing before you today grew up in the urban slums and the squatter’s area of a third world country. My father always said to me, “Finish your education. This is the only thing you can truly give yourself. Your money, your power, and your beauty will not last. But your education – being able to really think – will stay with you forever.” Graduates, I say to you today, don’t chase futile things. Don’t put your significance and your security in things that don’t last and don’t matter. As you stand and do your final march in this campus for this season in your life, hold your head up high knowing that in the few years you have spent in this campus, Pierce has given you something that is yours forever.