My 105-Year-Old High School Gifted Me
An Excellence Achievement Award 2024:
ANG KABATAAN AY ISANG BESES MO LANG DADAANAN.
You are young only once.
Don’t waste it.
Live it to what truly matters.
MENTAL HEALTH AND HIGH SCHOOL
A Passion That Started As A Teenager
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Acceptance Speech for 2024 JRU HIGH SCHOOL ALUMNUS Exemplary Achievement Award**
Good afternoon, JRU high school faculty and officials, fellow alumni, dear friends and guests:
As I stand before you today, I am filled with thankfulness and humility.
Receiving this JRU HS Alumnus Achievement Award is not just a personal honor. It is a reflection of the journey of our high school years we all share that has contributed to who I am and what I stand for today.
Growing up, my childhood was marked by shadows that seemed to loom larger than life itself.
I remember those dark days as a young boy beaten black and blue to my legs and buttocks, abandoned and tied to the stairways of our house full of tears, while hearing quarrels and noises echoing through our living room.
In despair, I longed for love, safety, and connection. It was a painful awakening to the complexities of human relationships. Yet it fueled in me a passion to understand the human mind and soul.
In high school, I was an angry, shy, insecure, and lonely teenager. I longed to be closer to my classmates and friends but I was wearing a mask that I could not shake off because of my hidden pain.
Yet I found purpose reaching out to poor, impoverished youth and communities through the organization I headed, writing pieces of insight for our school paper, and pushing myself for discipline as a competitive varsity chess player to the NCAA. These high school experiences were healing and transformative to the shaping of my character.
For multiple decades now, I’ve dedicated my life to helping individuals, couples, and families heal from psychological trauma and spiritual wounds. It has been a profound privilege to witness the transformative power of compassion, understanding, and faith in the lives of people.
Out of my own pain was born books I authored like Secrets of Your Self and God’s Inner Healing, and TV, radio, and multimedia appearances, where I shared the deep work of hope and healing I myself experienced and do for others.
Life is about so much more than material achievements, possessions, or awards. A lot of what actually matters is beyond calculation.
Hippocrates, the father of modern medicine, emphasized this point when he wrote, “All diseases proceed from the mind and soul.”
It is about true faith, the meaning of life, and real lasting fulfillment. It is about standing in the light of our shared humanity and lifting each other up.
What’ is special about us together is that pain is such a great equalizer.
I’ve met many wealthy and poor people, young and old, educated and uneducated, famous and ordinary people in my sessions during their darkest and most painful moments of their lives. In times of catastrophe, we do set aside our differences for we need each other to heal and survive.
Every story I have heard has reinforced my belief that we are all capable of profound healing and change, and that every wound or pain has the potential to become a source of strength.
As I accept this achievement award, I do so not just for myself, but for every individual who has struggled, for every child who longs for love, and for every soul seeking healing and salvation.
I dedicate this honor to my own father and mother whom I was able to embrace and say kind, loving words before their last dying moments. We too experienced the grace of healing and forgiveness in our relationship.
I also share this honor to my wife Nhorie and children whom we both love.
Most importantly and above all, I give my deepest gratitude and all glory to God my Savior and Lord Christ Jesus.
He is the reason that I’ve learned to feel truly loved and accepted despite people and circumstances around me.
He is the reason for the countless lives that have touched mine.
He is the reason to the belief that together we can create a world where love triumphs over fear, and where healing prevails over hurts.
Let us continue to inspire one another as a community and to find the deepest joy and meaning that life has to offer to each one of us.
Thank you.
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drangelosubida.com
Photos: Shamei Photography
JRUAA Excellence Achievement Awards
November 6, 2024
Full Video Acceptance Speech Clip below:
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/15JtpCsMVy/?mibextid=WC7FNe
