‘I am a MARISIAN’

I can still vividly remember the first time I set foot on Stella Maris’ campus grounds. My hair was in ponytails adorned with little flower clips, strapped to my back was a princess backpack filled with a box of crayons, a bunch of pencils, and a couple of snacks of which my mom repeatedly reminded me to share.

I did not cry like the other kids nor threw fits screaming due to fear of being separated from my mother. Actually I felt the opposite. Instead of fear, I felt calm. Seeing those unfamiliar faces did not make me cower and hide, rather I was filled with excitement and eagerness. From the moment I was ushered into the classroom, I knew that I belonged.

Since then, Stella Maris Academy of Davao has been my second home. A place of many firsts. It is in the same institution where I made my first friends, where I had the chance to perform on stage at the young age of four and it is also in the same school where I experienced my very first camping.

Being a Marisian, has taught me a lot of things; values and principles that I would never have learned if not for the teachers, sisters and administrators of the school. It has been instilled in the very core of our hearts the legacy and teachings of our dear foundress St. Candida Maria de Jesus.

St. Candida lived a life with God at her center. Living everyday with simplicity and selflessness, she was someone who put other people’s needs before hers. She practiced mercy and compassion even in the littlest things she did.

Through the activities and programs administered by the school, with the guidance of St. Candida, as a Marisian I have inhabited the values of service, humility, faith and excellence. Every time I participate or attend reach-outs, recollections, seminars and Sacraments organized by the school, not only am I given the chance to be of service to the community, especially to those in need, but it allowed me to become more whole as a person.

Being a student of the same school for thirteen long years, I have no regrets of being part of the Stella Maris educative community. Stella Maris has opened my eyes and widened my horizons to be able to see the bigger picture; people who are neglected by society, children who yearn for proper homes and a chance at education and aged men and women who feel useless and uncared for.

The institution has honed me into the person who God wants me to be, and because of this I am honored to have once been part of such a wonderful school and I am proud to be called a Marisian. (Justine Gwen Rasonabe)