Our Pisay Days Part III...

LETTER TO A MEMBER OF PISAY BATCH 2003

June 1, 1999

Dear Sarah Isolde,

Your younger sister, Nadine, and we are very happy at your having qualified as a PISAY scholar. Nadine looks up to you as a role model and although she is only in Grade Two, she is already thinking of following you footsteps.

Your having hurdled the two qualifying exams to land in the top 240 of more than 17,000 applicants who took the initial PISAY exams for Batch 2003 is indeed a significant achievement. But it is only the beginning of what we are hoping to be a rewarding and fulfilling career in science and technology. The harder part is to be able to tackle the rigorous academic requirements of being a PISAY scholar.

A new lifestyle as a student awaits you at PISAY. You will have to fine-tune your study habits and develop self-discipline to cope with the academic requirements. You will have to sacrifice some of your time allotted for leisure and entertainment as it would seem there will never be enough time to study your lessons. More often than not, you will be sleeping, out of sheer mental exhaustion, on your study table table with your head buried in a book.

Being a PISAY scholar is certainly not a picnic. As in other worthy endeavors, we must be prepared to make sacrifices for some higher goals in life. As you grow older and become more mature, you will learn that nothing is free in the Universe. Success is attained only through sweat and tears. Knowing you as a responsible person, we are confident that you will be able to achieve your goal of graduating from PISAY.

To be sure, there will be problems, but overcoming difficulties is part and parcel of growing up and finding solutions to these problems provide the drama and intensity which make life more meaningful and worth living. You can just imagine how drab life will be if everything in this world is picture-perfect and hassle-free. Always keep in mind the words of a sage: "Those who have suffered little, whose feet have neither been torn nor weary, know little of life and less of immortality."

Despite the difficulties, we would like you to enjoy your stint at PISAY and to look at it as a significant rite of passage from childhood to adolescence. You should strive hard to excel in your academic subjects, but not to the extent of neglecting the other equally important facets of your life, especially the exciting life of being a teen-ager.

If you can successfully tackle the difficult courses with flying colors, well and good. However, we would like to stress that being a PISAY scholar is not the be-all and end-all of life. There is more to life than being a PISAY scholar.

The pressure of coping with your academic load is not a valid reason for you to snarl at your younger sister whenever she has the urge to be coddled and petted by you.

Despite the term papers and projects to be finished, take time to smell the flowers in the garden and appreciate the cool, refreshing air under the shade of the trees in the PISAY campus.

Cultivate friendship among your schoolmates, members of the faculty and the administrative personnel. There is no substitute for good human relations as no man is an island.

Empathize with the poor and the underprivileged in our society, whose lives the government is constantly trying to improve. We can't be complacent and contented when the majority of the Filipino people are suffering and mired in abject poverty. Always stay in focus and keep in mind that you are studying at PISAY in the hope of contributing to the betterment of our country and people.

And most of all, have faith in, and always seek the guidance of the Divine Providence in our continuing struggle to bring out the best in all of us.

There's one more thing I would like to say, although this may sound trivial and insignificant to others. Years from now, no matter where you are and how high the ladder of success you may have attained, take time to visit PISAY, and even for just one brief moment, be once again the young, shy and awkward girl -- accompanied by her parents and a younger sister -- who embarked on a journey to new vistas in academic excellence by enrolling at PISAY. If that precise moment is forever frozen in your memory, you will never go wrong.

A homecoming always evokes an indescribable feeling which is poignant with mixed emotions and at the same time a humbling experience.

The eagle may soar high into the sky, but at the end of the day, it will always return to its roost. In the same manner, a PISAY alumni will always pay homage to his academic roots.

We wish you and the members of Batch 2003 all the luck!

Love,

Dad, Mom & Nadine

Cris Servano