EDITORIAL | ASSUMPTA OCTOBER 2021

It’s Old Girl’s Day… Velada Time!  Time to flaunt the  fashion du jour…the irrepressible red plaid uniform (or the blue ‘ skirted one) and the perky necktie whose length (or lack of it) is an immediate giveaway of your graduating batch. While we were still online and separated by distance, we enjoyed the same lunch fare through bespoke menus that the Silvers very creatively put together.   Dressed in our uniforms, that badge of honor dusted and aired every October, and glued to the same YouTube channel, we created a collective memory that nothing, not even the pandemic, can dampen!    

This second volume of the Assumpta online features our 2021 Jewels.  They admitted to having pre-Velada jitters, and have shared heartwarming stories of batch viewings prior to the video launch on October 17.  How wonderful that the sisterhoods are intact, that friendships cross not only miles but also time and circumstance. Read about their stories here, of how they prepared and of how they gave back, as all Assumptionists do, through acts of incredible magnanimity.  Not content with staging a one-day show, the Silvers of 2021, HS 1996, memorialized the many stories of courage and faith of the different jubilarian batches through video compilations in VELADA TV. One of the video features, that of Candy Gonzales-Blancaflor, a Jade from HS 1986, is the springboard for My Magnificat, her personal testimony and canticle of unwavering faith, deliberate bravery and staunch hope.

Old Girl’s Day is more than just the Velada! Right before the curtains were raised, our AAA President, Dr. Clarissa Velayo, as all AAA Presidents have before her, gave the President’s Address.  Her speech detailed funds raised and distributed by AAA to our worthy beneficiaries.  With bated breath, many eagerly waited for her to announce the new members of AAA’s 2021 Board of Trustees.  This year’s election was historical in so many ways.  It is AAA’s first online election; we had 950 registrants and 826 voters, breaking all records which averaged 250 – 300 voters in the past.  The run-up to the elections were ground-breaking too, with the first online” Meet the Candidates Night ” held over Zoom. Having voted for candidates, it’s now time to know who among them carried the vote!  Click here to know who our winners are!   We thank everyone for participating and salute our Nominations and Elections Committee for the facile and innovative implementation of this groundbreaking milestone.

It’s curtain call time!  As our computer screens dim and the euphoria quietens, we think back on what it means to be an Assumptionist.  We read about Assumption Cares, the remarkable story of how alumnae across batches rescued and continue to sustain barangays in Samar that were engulfed by Typhoon Yolanda 7 years ago.  We read about the Taal explosion and how Assumption College and alumnae rallied to support Batanguenos displaced by the eruption.  On the lighter side,  we read about The Real Assumption Tart and browse through Shopaholics, our online shopping catalogue peppered with Assumption memorabilia and proud products of our alumnae. In reading, we get glimpses of the Assumptionista!  She is the fun-loving showstopper who dances  and expresses with abandon, the passionate crusader who  cannot be stopped when on a mission for others,  the  faithful handmaiden who lifts her travails to heaven, the romantic sentimental who munches AC goodies and buys AC logo merchandise from head to foot to proclaim loudly that she is from Assumption.  Read about them and you will find facets of yourself in every incarnation of the Assumptionist.  

The Assumptionist…she dances, prays, advocates, shops, sings, creates, goes on a mission, cries, laughs, stumbles, then picks herself up again. She is the multi-faceted, multi-layered woman with depths never fully plumbed and heights inexorably reached.

Read about her. You will love her. She is you!

All hail!