Clarissa

goodness gracious! stumbled upon this post while i was browsing multiply memories! click me! damn how much i miss my alma mater!

i don`t really care how many basketball games we lose.. how sunken it is when the slightest of all rains come.. how much other universities don`t want us to win the uaap cheerdance competition.. how religious students here can get.. or even how bright our yellow paraphernalia are.what i kno is we have the best (if not the biggest and most crowded) christmas parties a university can have. that we have conquered numbers of floods. (that we are in guiness for the largest cross! lol!) that we have a 5-peat win in uaap cdc, the first one to earn it. (and so much more to be proud of.) that we survived the time of the spaniards, americans, japanese and we still stand today. 400 years is something to be proud of. being a quadricentennial graduate, even more. more than a part of history. we are history. school pride. tomasian pride.

a cheer is worth more than sweat and the trouble of shouting. i believe a lot would agree. it encompasses a lot more than drums and beats, and yells.. there’s just something in you that prides to be a part of the crowd cheering. that prides you to shout it out loud. there’s something in you that whenever you hear it, you remember everything your school is fighting for, what you are yelling for. it just simply connects you and those who yell with you. it boosts school pride. it emboldens unity among you and your fellow thomasians (or other universities in this case). it stirs a combination of spirit of hope and encouragement.

“viva santo tomas” will always be yelled and danced to with every sweat a thomasian could bear to lose. a “black-gold-black-white” chanted like a battle cry during a medieval war. a “go uste” will always be shouted from the heart, at the top of every thomasian lung.

even we can’t pride ourselves to be uaap basketball and cdc champions, i believe the school is worth more than wins in athletics. i will forever carry the influence of my beloved university, the christian belief and the teachings. i am who i am now because ust has educated me. a part of me will always give thanks to ust, and forever cherish the memories and friendships i have made inside and outside of its ground for its sake.

for this, i express my deepest and sincerest gratitude for the pontifical and royal (not to mention smoke-free) university of santo tomas. thank you.

-calleigh semana, oct 12, 2011