By: Philip S. Chua, M.D., FACS, FPCS
Fellow alumni, officers, guests, ladies and gentlemen, good evening and welcome to the 25th Annual Grand Ball of our Alumni Foundation.
First, allow me to congratulate the Silver Jubilarians this year, and our Sapphire, Ruby, Coral, Pearl celebrants. I consider it a personal honor to be your fellow alumnus. Your individual and collective achievements and contributions to society are a great source of pride for me, for all fellow alumni, for our Alma Mater, and for our nativeland.
Once again, I wish to reiterate my gratitude to our local convention host, headed by Myrna and Nani Tansuche, Daisy and Ato Ramos, and Clarina and Deo Pacual, and also to the members of our CME committee, who deserve our recognition and commendation for another fabulous seminar. To all of you, my heartfelt thanks, on behalf of our Board of Trustees.
But most of all, I would like to extend my personal and official thanks to all of you, my fellow alumni. You, and not the officers like me, are the heart, body and soul of our organization. Without you, there is no alumni foundation. To paraphrase a famous lyric, you are really the wind beneath our wings.
Since this Valedictory Address is my last official task as Chairman of Board of our Alumni Foundation, my roommate Farida and I would like to express our appreciation and gratitude to all of you again, to my fellow officers, members of the Board of Trustees and Chapter presidents. I am leaving the office with confidence and optimism because I know that my successor, Roly Casis, and incoming President Arsenio Martin, and the rest of the leaders of our Foundation, are experienced, capable and dedicated people. Farida and I also wish to give a special thank to Jane and Amante Legaspi, for being excellent members of our team. I could not have chosen a better president to work with...I mean, a president with a wife like Jane.
In this world today, we are constantly faced with challenges after challenges. How you and I confront them or respond to them, will spell the difference between brilliance and mediocrity, between success and failure, between triumph and defeat.
As I have stated before, leaving this world after this life is not a tragedy. Dying without significance, without making a difference, without leaving behind a good legacy, is.
Allow me to challenge all of you this evening: I beseech all of you to remember our Lupang Hinirang and our wonderful people back home.
As we gracefully travel to the twilight years of our life, looking at the golden horizon beyond, soul-searching as to what good we have done in this world, let us also reach out to our Motherland with love and compassion, and leave behind a beautiful and lasting legacy our children and their children can be proud of for generations to come.
Thank you, good night, and God bless you.
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*Valedictory Address delivered by Philip S. Chua, M.D., as Chairman of the Board, Far Eastern University-DNR School of Medicine Alumni Foundation, at its 25th Alumni Convention and Reunion Grand Ball at the Marriott in Troy, Michigan, July 17, 2004
