"Who you are online is not an accurate picture of who you really are." (AJHS Closing Ceremony 2024 Speech)

Read the message of guest speaker Dr Maria Cielo D Magno to the completers of AJHS Batch 2024 during the Ateneo de Manila Junior High School Closing Ceremony on Wednesday, 29 May 2024.

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Ateneo de Manila University President Fr. Roberto C. Yap SJ, University Vice President Fr. Joaquin Jose Mari C. Sumpaico III SJ, Ms. Genalyn S. Sanvictores, Ms. Ma. Lourdes B. Antonio, Mr. Ronan B. Capinding, Mr. Perfecto R. Guerrero III, co-parents, students, guests, magandang umaga po.

I would like to thank Ateneo Junior High School for inviting me to speak before you today. I speak to all of you today as a mother, educator, life-long learner, and worst of all, an influencer.

And speaking as all of these things, I would like to go straight to the point of what I would like to tell the graduating class, the wisdom I’d like to share with you: the parts of high school that you remember best will define you as a person after you graduate.

So my question for the graduating class of 2024 is this: what will you remember most about your time in AJHS? I asked myself this question as I was writing this speech, about what I remember best when I was in high school. I am then reminded of a Facebook friend request that I received some years ago.

I received a Facebook friend request from one of my former teachers. I was actually very surprised to receive a friend request from him. He was not my favorite teacher, and his friend request brought back unpleasant memories. Friend request??? I clicked accept with hesitation. That hesitation immediately turned into an urge to just let him know the thoughts I kept all these years. It has been more than 30 years since but it felt like it just happened yesterday. Friend request pala ha? So I DM’d him. Today, I am sharing with you a portion of that private message, just to show you how a young person’s experience in school affects who you are as an adult.

Here is my DM: There is something I’ve been wanting to tell you, for years now. I’m glad to see you here on Facebook. Our encounters when I was your student changed my life. I hated you for years. When I was young, I thought the rules were simple. You have to work hard and be honest. But the way you handled things changed my view of the world. Good thing it did not break me. But I condemned the world for being corrupt and evil and hurtful. I made it my mission in life to fight the establishment, the evil and the corrupt. And while the process of learning was painful and hurtful, it turned out to be for the better. I think you ought to know that I consider those experiences traumatic. You might not remember them but for a child, those experiences scarred me and I will not allow anyone to do the same to my kids, or to any kids, in general. And that’s why I am telling you this. I hope you have changed. I hope you now encourage children to be honest and stand up for what is right.

Obviously, my experience with that teacher was an unpleasant one. But I realized from that friend request how big a deal that experience was to me, and how it has shaped me as a person. I actually did not expect and did not want to hear from him, but technology allowed us to reconnect–or should I say, disconnect. Technology can shape how you remember things, and memory can define you as a person. Before the internet and social media, memory was mostly kept in photobooks, diaries, scrapbooks, or simply just in your heart or your head. Today, your mobile phone can remind you about what you did last year, or the anniversary of your first Instagram thirst trap.

After saying that your best memories of high school will define you as a person, I would now have to ask you: how much of your high school life has been recorded in social media, or on your phones? And I will follow up with this question: are you what is posted in social media?

And there are more questions:
○ Will the people in your high school photos remain your friends forever?
○ How would you feel if you saw your video again in five or ten years? Smile? Laugh? Cringe? Cry? Feel ashamed?
○ If there are screenshots of your DMs or GCs, will they be called good memories, or incriminating evidence?
○ These questions you should ask yourself now, because if you delay asking yourself these questions, it might be too late.

Let me tell you this as a person with a blue checkmark on Facebook: people will know you by your social media posts. For both your followers and bashers, you are what you post. This is how the Internet defines you.

But you know in your heart that who you are online is not an accurate picture of who you really are. Who you are online are just bits and pieces of yourself that you wish to show the world, combined with the bits and pieces of how other people see you.

So take the best memories of AJHS and let them guide you in life. If it’s a good memory, build on it. If it’s a bad memory, overcome it. There may come a time that you will go viral for the best or the worst of reasons, but, either way, do not let that viral post define you. As much as you can edit posts, people can also change, and let that change be a good one.

Social media is a very powerful tool for change. We can also use it to advocate and take a stand on issues; to promote lessons we learned from the AJHS. The best lessons are the ones you share with others.

What I’ve learned is that memory, ironically, is unpredictable. Technology has the power to create versions of ourselves. It can highlight our mistakes or trumpet our triumphs. But memory is malleable. It is this impermanence of the past that gives us hope. Our memory no longer defines us because we can always rewrite our past and make better versions of ourselves as long as we anchor these changes on the lessons we learned here in AJHS.

On the flipside, the worst thing that you can do in 10 years or more is to say this about AJHS: Hindi ko na po maalala, your honor.

This is my motherly advice, the lesson I’m teaching as an educator, the notes I’m passing as a classmate, and the meme I’m posting as an influencer: remember AJHS.