Growing up in a modest home, ๐ฃ๐๐๐ง ๐๐ข๐๐ก๐ก๐ ๐๐ช๐๐ก ๐๐จ๐ฆ๐๐๐๐๐ก ๐๐จ๐๐ฆ๐ข learned early that dreams werenโt just wishesโthey were responsibilities.
The sky over Valencia City, the City of Golden Harvest, where she had come of age was still soft and gray. It was quietโthe kind of quiet that makes you think of people you miss. She would pause for a moment, holding onto that silence. It reminded her of a different morning, not too long ago, when everything in her life still felt complete. Back when her father would ask her how school was, back when she could still say, โWait for me, Pa. Iโll make you proud.โ
She used to believe she had more time, so she did everything she could to make him proud. She studied under dim lights, pushed herself in every class, and chased excellence not for applause, but for the quiet hope of seeing her parents smile. And she didโagain and again.
She graduated elementary with Second Honorable Mention at Valencia City Central School, Class Valedictorian at Central Mindanao University Laboratory High School, and Strand Valedictorian at Xavier Ateneo de Cagayan Senior High School.
Honors.
Medals.
Recognition.
Each one a small step closer to the life she wanted to give her family. Yet deep inside, she wanted something bigger, and so she aimed for it. She aimed for cadetship: not just for prestige, but for purpose. For a chance to lift her family, to ease her motherโs burdens, and to finally give her father something more than promises.
When she was accepted into the academy, it felt like the beginning of everything.
Until it became the moment everything changed. It happened too soon. Two months before the Recognition Rites.
A call.
A pause.
And then, a silence that didnโt go away.
Her father was gone.
There are losses that break you loudly. And then there are those that arrive quietlyโand stay.
Source:ย KALASAG-PNPA Corps Publications