SANTY MORANTE - PRESIDENT MI'65

Buong kagalakan kong ipinaaabot ang isang taus-pusong pagbati sa lahat nang aking mga kamag-aral kasabay ng ating pagdiriwang sa paggunita ng ika-apatnapung kaarawan ng Klase 1965.

Sa pagkakataong ito, nararapat lamang na tayong lahat ay masiyahan sa pagpapahayag ng ating tagumpay sa nakaraang pagdiriwang ng ating muling pagkikita - sa pagkakaroon ng matibay na samahan na pinatatatag ng ating matapat, makatao at maka-Diyos na hangarin, na makapaglingkod ng buong puso sa mga kapus-palad at higit na nangangailangan nating mga kamag-aral. Ako, tulad ninyo, ay may adhikain na ang nalalabing buhay sa daigdig na ito ay maiukol at maialay sa mga kababayang higit na umaasa sa ating kalinga. Sa kabila ng mga balakid na patuloy at walang sawa sa pagnanasang humadlang sa ating dakilang layunin, ay nagagawa pa rin natin salungain ang unos tungo sa ating tagumpay.

Ako ay nananalig na anuman ang aking dalahin ay magiging magaan, kung kayong lahat ay aking makakatulong sa pagtataguyod sa ating hinangad at ngayo'y nakamtang adhikain na makapaglingkod sa ating MI Class 1965. Umasa kayo na ang lahat ng inyong kabutihan at kagandahang loob ay mananatiling nakakintal sa aking puso, at bayaan ninyong sa pagkaka- taong ito, ay maipabatid ko sa inyo, kasama ang aking butihing maybahay na si Tessie at sampu ng aking tatlong anak (Morbai, Jomar at Louie), ang aming walang hanggang pasasalamat sa inyong lahat, lalo't higit sa mga nagpasimula nito sa pangunguna ng ating kagyat nakaraang pangulong Edgar, sa mga magagandang pangyayaring naganap sa aking buhay sa panahon na ginagampanan ko ang tungkulin inyong iniatang sa akin.

Muli, sa ngalan ng MI Class 1965, maligayang bati sa inyong lahat at nawa'y sumainyo ang pagpapala ng ating Dakilang Lumikha. MABUHAY ANG BATCH '65!

SANTIAGO L. MORANTE
President, Class 1965

Edgardo Gonzales, Honorary President and Class Adviser

My Dear Classmates,

It's been more than 7 months since I gave a class message and that was thanking our RP leaders for orchestrating that medical mission and reunion beautifully, with passion and dedication. I just thought of giving one, to remind everybody that the things we have started are just a good beginning for more wonderful and meaningful gatherings and projects still to come.

I know most of you are still recalling the sounds of jubilation in our last gathering, aren't you? Some of our classmates who were not able to attend really missed it and I hope they won't miss the next one.. and the next..There have been talks about a mini-reunion somewhere abroad, and the popular venue is Canada as a lot of Canadian classmates missed our June 27 reunion in RP. We will see what happens as it appears that this mini-gathering might come to reality next year. And for the benefit of everybody, Santy & I agreed last time that our next class reunion will be in 2010, our 45th Anniversary! It's only 4 years from now, let us all stay healthy, motivated and inspired to await that golden moment once again ! Per our President, it will be as beautiful, if not more beautiful than the last. As your honorary president and class adviser, nothing will give me much pleasure than to be with everybody again.

Some classmates gave me their observation that I have not been that active in our class website http://www.mi65.org/ since Rolly and I started that joint project of "Bringing All MC Alumni Together" thru our website http://www.mcgraduates.net/ Rolly was so inspired with the success of our MI '65 website that he thought of this new website. And who wouldn't be?
Our past gatherings would not have been that successful without the announcements, activities and pictures posted therein for immediate viewing of everybody around the world. Of course, our leaders in RP and abroad contributed much to our success - that is already a given in MI Class '65 equation. So when Rolly invited me to join him, I did not hesitate to say "Yes, I shall be honored my friend, as according to you, this will be our offering and legacy to our Alma Mater".

It is interesting to note that in the mcgraduates website and undertaking, Class '65 is one of the lead classes (if not the lead class) not only because Rolly & I started it, but because majority of our class composes the yahoo forum. Additionally, I know and I believe that there is an abundance of leaders among our classmates, just waiting to be tapped when the moment arises. And because of this, I also know that you will not fail us when the time comes. In the forthcoming convention of class leaders in a year or two, I need all the help I can get - I need your support to propel us to that magical realization of this project. Down the road, I want you to be by my side, once more !

Let us keep the fire of friendship, love and solidarity burning among our hearts. Let us show other MC classes that MI Class '65 is one of their leaders, is unique and neverending, simply because we really are.....

Edgar Gonzales
MI Class '65 - 02/13/06

Edgardo Gonzales, Honorary President and Class Adviser

As we go home after 40 years to our Alma Mater, the Meycauayan Institute (now Meycauayan College), I know we cannot help but have mixed feelings while reminiscing our 4 years' stay in our school.How time really flies! It was almost like yesterday when we were just 17years old, cramming in exams, solving problems in Physics, memorizing history events and interpreting literature works while at the same time basking in the sunshine of the smiles of classmates we cared for.Those were the sweet yet challenging years which are hard to forget but easy to remember.

A lot of us will look for traces we had in 1965, when we stood in line waiting to march during our graduation - with dreams in our minds and hearts remembering our teachers' advise - "Hitch your wagon to a star! Dream Big! Aim High"". I still remember it was drizzling that day when Mother Nature was not that cooperative. We graduated in the second floor of the green building just behind the grandstage where all programs and plays and flag ceremonies were held.

We shall utter a silent prayer of thanks for being with this wonderful batch of graduates who have been inspired by our teachers, parents and friends to bring us where we are now.To us, that graduation exercise was the real start of the dreams we had pursued and triumphed for 40 years, a foundation really worth recalling. As one of our previous registrars said, "Hard work is one thing, and dreaming is something else. You cannot build a monument that is based on future performance".

Yes, everyone has a monument built already, based on his own dream, on his own plight. It could be big or small but it doesn't really matter, as it represents an embodiment of harships and toils pursued on a personal basis and where the standard likewise was based on a personal yardstick, on one's own little way.In a graduate's mind, he has done his best. To his family, he is the real number one; he is the best in his own right, in his own world!

Some of us will rekindle past hearththrobs for classmates to whom words of love and care were hardly, or not even spoken. We shall relive circumstances, happy, funny, frustrating, even sad ones relating to such teenage crushes and intentions. Whatever that was, a graduate will be engulfed in his own thoughts maybe wondering, what if? What could have happened if he had the courage to speak those sweet words of love usually buried in letters which were never even sent.

To me, it will be a combination of all these things. I will give thanks to our school and our teachers, retrace footsteps of our youth, also ask myself questions that I have never dared ask myself before. But more importantly, I will be going home to feel young again and to get yet another lasting inspiration that has brought me where I am and which will bring me to the rest of my remaining dreams. Going back after 40 years is not only a celebration of the heart and mind; it is a "triumph of the spirit".

I wanted to start fresh again and conquer my remaining aspirations, to continue what I have started, to aim for something reachable and realistically possible. Afterall, as they say, "Life begins at 40?"

Edgar Gonzales
MI Class '65 - 3/22/05

Welcome to our Meycauayan Insititute Class 1965 website at www.mi65.org.

This wonderful project is the brainchild of a few smart classmates whose initial purpose was to say "hello" and know how each other was doing after 39 years. E-mail messages were exchanged, one suggestion led to another and the end-product is this "global link" of communication among all our classmates, and others too, thru this website.

A few names are worth mentioning for accomplishing this. Elsa Pena Roberto for making the first call which started the ball rolling. Evie Gregorio Peters, Gerry Villareal, Delfin Zafra, Jack Bordador, Flora Mendoza Baetiong, Sunny Prodon Graham and Eric Santiago (of class '64) for joining the interchanges which created the momentum and brought the excitement to a higher level. Reverend Isagani Lazaro for being the spiritual adviser and inspiration of the group. And lastly, a special mention to Rolly Malinis whose expertise and unsolicited dedication made the completion of this website possible. As class president, I could not be more proud of what is going on.

Our ultimate goal is to account and connect with everybody, all 378 graduates wherever they are in this universe. We shall eulogize and remember our friends who left us early. We shall thank and pay tribute to our teachers and mentors who in one way or another, have touched our lives as we pursued our place in the sun. We shall reminisce the laughter and joys of our high school life.

Our history will be an open-ended story. It has a beginning but will have no end. This will be our continuing legacy to the future generations. It will be like watching a movie to temporarily forget our present lives for a few hours of entertainment and fantasy. The only main difference is that ours is not a fantasy. We are all actors and actresses who compose the entire cast; we are living it and we are in it.

This is our neverending story...

To All My Classmates,

Thinking of a good holiday greeting to all of you especially our classmates in RP has never been easy. I asked myself - what is it that someone feels when he hears of a classmate? Then something pops out of my mind - love and respect and friendship !

Yes, friendship is the gift that I want you to think about during this holiday seson. I cannot give this to you as you already have it. As compared to love that enters the body and heart without warning and lives violently in the body's innermost parts and refuses to depart, friendship dwells in the heart and really stays there. It is a permanent feeling, like once a classmate, always a classmate and friend.

If a classmate is calling or visiting, what is it that reminds you of love and respect, kindness and hospitality ? Friendship ! When I was calling classmates all over the globe, I always felt that kind of feeling so close to all of you. We were talking as if we've been friends forever although during our high school days, no words or just a few were spoken between us.

The tie that binds us is 4 years of togetherness in Merycauayan Institute, sharing the same environment and aspiration to attain something after graduation. I think we are much luckier than other MI graduates . Some of them have lived in faraway places and died without even meeting a classmate or receiving a letter from one.

When I was talking to Flora Mendoza Baetiong yesterday, I asked her what motivated her to solicit for our medical mission,.She said " I'm not exactly sure but when you started the solicitations, I got very inspired and I wanted to do something for the class too". Then I said to her "You were inspired in what you did and in turn, you have inspired a lot of classmates who are soliciting now all around Australia, Canada and here in the US ".

When I talked to Regalado Nieto - he was ecstatic! He said - "Even if I am totally blind, I will "see" all of you in our reunion". When I talked to Sally Godoy Miranda the other day, I did not notice that we have been talking for more than an hour as the exchanges of related subjects and experiences kept flowing - just like close friends who have been temporary separated all these years.

As the New Year unfolds, remember that 2005 is a year for the books. It is our year - an unforgettable year and you would not want to miss this reunion for the world, would you ? We shall rekindle love and friendship once more. The big family of MI Class '65 will rock! And as Eddie Barles commented when he was found - "MI Class '65 Rules!"

In your party and gathering wherever you maybe, please inlcude me in your toast - to love and friendship ! In our hearts, friendship really lives forever !

Have a Merry Christmas and a great New Year !

Edgar 12/23/04