Every year is always better than the last. I always keep this in mind whenever I look back at the previous years. There are no exact same day – as there are no two exact same year. Each year is unique – with its share of sorrows and woes; joys, and glories.

Looking back at it now, as I approach the months-long end of my BU presidency, I am more aware of how the years – each year – have been most kind and benevolent to me; especially during the height of the pandemic. I know each of us has a story to tell – of sadness, of joy, and of the in-between bittersweet moments in life. Nevertheless, I wish that your sorrows and joys of the year were tempered by the hope that was that springs eternal in our hearts.

It was Ralph Waldo Emerson who said, “Write it said on your heart that every day is the best day in the year.” I must have been influenced by this, when I created my tagline vision that “the best is yet to come.” The eight years that I have been with you were without a doubt the most productive and proactive years of my life; even with the usual sighs and stresses of leadership. I was blessed with many good and wonderful people – fellow servants and administrators whose leadership made my Presidency seem so easy and smooth. Therefore, every New Year that comes to me, with you – my Bicol University family – has always been the best day of the year.
Yet, when I feel the strains and pains of leadership and life in general, I am also reminded that this, too, shall pass; that the best is yet to come because the magic is always in new beginnings. Today, as the year that was and everything that it has brought us have ended, we hold the promise of tomorrow – of new leadership; of new, but familiar directions, and of exciting destinations, and roads not yet travelled. If each year is a book, then we have been given 365 pages to write. However, we have to decide whether we want to get stuck or to get somewhere because according to J.P. Morgan “The first step towards getting somewhere is to decide you’re not going to stay where you are.” Therefore, if we are going to write a good book of our life, we need to write a good one. Even Gilbert K. Chesterton agrees when he said, “The object of a New Year is not that we should have a new year. It is that we should have a new soul.”
This is what I still envision for you – my Bicol University family: to continue moving forward and infuse a new soul to our beloved Bicol University. Let us sustain the gains, blaze better and newer trails, to build more milestones, and leave legacies that addresses the needs of the academic communities and Bicolano scholars and contribute to development beyond the university borders.
To 2023 and beyond!