The Graduate

MADRID, Spain — Getting off the plane after a 15-hour flight not including the layover at Dubai, there was a noticeable bounce on every step that I took not because I will be covering a big event in the coming days.

In reality, it’s an event much bigger than any other for me and my wife Cathleen and my sister-in-law Charmian, who were with me on that fabulous Emirates flight from Manila.

So here I am once again in my favorite foreign city of all about to attend another landmark moment.

It’s the graduation of my one and only daughter Audrey at the Universidad de Alcala where she is enrolled in a Master’s program.

You see, just a few months after graduating from La Salle-Taft in 2017, she flew to Spain to become an English Language Teaching Assistant — known here as Auxiliar de Conversacion — given Spain’s low proficiency in English.

At first, she was assigned to a town that is not even on the map: Bigastro.

Where?

Bigastro.

It is located 60-plus kilometers from Alicante and the closest big city is Murcia, almost 30 kilometers away.

Even if Father’s Day was celebrated recently, I would be spending mine this Monday.

Equipped with Spanish she learned from the Instituto Cervantes in Manila, my dear Audrey took off in January 2018 and spent the next six months in a school in Bigastro.

Then she came home and vacationed for a couple of months before being assigned to another school, this time, here in Madrid.

But her next stop took her to Galicia where she stayed for about three years, initially living in Pontevedra before relocating and residing in the next two years in the seaport city of Vigo.

And last year, she got assigned anew in the Spanish capital and performed her duties as a teaching assistant during the day while taking up classes at night.

This Monday is going to be her graduation and since she is the president of her class, she has been given about a minute and a half to deliver a speech.

As I write this piece in the dark (it’s 3 a.m. of Thursday here), the clicky sound of the keypad the only thing that is audible, I can’t help but look back to the days when I had to scramble for her school tuition and other fees given the high cost of education.

I always knew that education is truly important and picking the right school is a game-changer.

So I had to punch above my weight to ensure that she finishes her studies at La Salle.

Good thing that she didn’t mess up and even before she finished her studies, I knew every cent that I was spending was worth it because she was on the Dean’s list and later became an award-winning staffer at the La Sallian.

Well, I know that not everyone’s going to get the same experience.

I am just overjoyed that she did and when she goes up the stage on Monday, I might not be able to control my emotions and probably cry.

But those are going to be tears of joy.

Even if Father’s Day was celebrated recently, I would be spending mine this Monday.

Salud!