Class 1965, U.P. Preparatory School, proclaims the cover of the
Annual. And prompted by some cautious spirit, the reader will flip
over the pages of that annual. He will discover it to be replete with
pictures of the graduates. He will go over their names and
activities, their convocations and educational tours, their
laboratory work and their moments of revelry. And then the reader
will conclude that Class 1965, U.P. Preparatory School is merely
another batch of graduates. Who will tell them that this is not so,
who will tell them about these graduates and the metamorphoses that
took place in them?

How can an impartial observer portray and paint with words the
mingled feelings these graduates felt when they ascended Prep's
flight of steps on the first day of school of 1965? Can he ever hope
to portray these feelings, one wonders. Verily, an impartial observer
can accomplish this only to a small degree. Who can thus play the
role of Chronicler of Class 1965? Only the graduates themselves,
undoubtedly.

Wide-eyed and innocent these graduates were on their first day of
school. That day, Prep was the embodiment of all the challenges life
could hurl to them.

And so, the graduates set out to meet the challenges and to enjoy the
fun. And that first year, they were on their way towards making their
mark, though they did so unconsciously anfd unknowingly. They gave
themselves and all their talents to the task at hand. They studied
their lessons diligently and they helped each other meet the many
responsibilities school life presented. But they also enjoyed
themselves and drew each other from the protective cocoon with which
they had sorrounded themselves. Childlike they were, but gradually,
they found themselves. And suddenly, before they knew it, the first
year of their high school life had drawn to an end.

After a long vacation, the graduates returned home to Prep for their
second year. They had hurled over a year easily, they were now a step
nearer their goal. But they knew they were headed towards bigger
responsilities, towards a larger share in school activities.

And so the sophomores buckled down. They made ready once again to
meet life's challenges. Perhaps they were taken aback by the amount
of school work the sophomore year presented, but they did not yield
to despair. Hope springs eternal from the human breast, and such was
always the case with these graduates. They faltered, yes, but they
also raised themselves, aided by their fervent prayers, their
solicitous parents, and their thoughtful teachers.

Yes they lived it up, sorrounded as they were by the maze of school
work. They went out of their way to make friends, and they were aptly
and more than compensated by the warm smiles given in return. They
mingled with each other in the spirit of camaraderie, and from then
on blossomed friendship, platonic and otherwise. They seemed to be of
the same mold, yet personalities started to stand out: leadership
began to sprout and soon was mellowed by experience.

The summer vacation proved to be no deterrent to their growth in body
and in spirit. They found facilities that furthered this growth. They
began to discover the wonderful world of books; they read of the
lives of great men, and they learned that they too could make their
lives sublime. They explored the amazingly vast arts armed with the
indomitable spirit of youthful curiosity. They were finally on the
road towards making "whole men" of themselves.

And soon the graduates were in their junior year. Experience -- happy
and otherwise -- had tempered their inherent bouyant spirit, leaving
them steeped in the art of discerning which was fact and which was
fiction or half-truth. They knew that in the days to come, they would
be obliged to ccall upon their newly acquired art. They would make
decisions, and strike and forge the rod while it was still pliant and
hot.

And as the year passed, such was the case. Inevitable it was. The
graduates learned to lead to school -- and to look up to the seniors
and the teachers for guidance. They led and they obeyed. They
gradually understood the need for the balance between leadership and
obedience-- the need for the accidents of democracy.

They worked on projects far into the night, they exerted great effort
in seemingly impossible undertakings. And in the midst of these, they
attended to their school work. They came to know what it is to burn
the midnight oil. They learned potentialities and limitations were
and always will be present, but they also learned that thes two could
easily walk hand in hand in the search of academic and spiritual
progress.

But most of all and more than ever, the graduates discovered each
other -- that although they were schoolmates, they were also boys and
girls, with a world of marked differences existing between them. And
so, that night of their first prom, they were indeed young ladies and
gentlemen -- the boys unusually solicitous and attentive to the
girls, the girls disarmed and somehow awed by the metamorphoses that
was occurring in the rough-and-tumble boys they presumed their small
classmates were.

But that night , not all was merrriment and dancing. That night, the
torch of responsibility passes onto their youthful hands. They vowed
to hold it high and at all costs. Theirs was not an empty promise,
but an affirmation and pledge of their sense of duty, their sense of
responsibility, and their staunch loyalty to the principles their
alma mater adhere to and stand for.

The months rolled on rapidly, perhaps too rapidly for the graduates,
for after a respite of 3 long months from school, they found
themselves buried up to the neck in school work once more. They found
themselves immersed in club activities and in campaign speeches and
in elections. Once again, the walls of the Little Theater rang and
resounded with pledges of cooperation, of closer faculty-student
ties, of concrete achievements and valiant spirits, of worthwhile and
beneficial undertakings. Were these pledges to be fulfilled, or were
they mere pledges, the electors wondered as they took to the ballots.
 

And so, as the fourth year trickled away, the student leaders labored
and searched for "worthwhile and beneficial undertakings", guided by
their mentors, aided by their followers. The schoolyear witnessed the
unfolding and blossoming of talents -- in the arts, in the sciences,
in mathematics, in journalism, in military training, and in the
academic field. Students represented their school in conventions, in
contests, in testing grounds for scholastic excellence ably. For
indeed, they were resolved to hold high the torch of responsibility,
to gain credit for their school, to reap rewards.

And again, the graduates studied. Theirs was not the studying of
those who study for the mere sake of studying. Theirs was the
studying of those who look beyond their immediate sorrounding to the
far horizons, to the vast future-- to the worlds that lie boundless
and verdant, awaiting their conquerors. For they knew that someday in
the near future, they too would make their mark in a world replete
with competition. This they averred with all the conviction of their
youthful but tempered hearts. But there were times when they
faltered, when their hands grew unsteady, when their present appeared
bleak, so bleak, and the future so dark. And so, on the night of
their second Prom, it was perhaps with relief that they passed the
torch on to the incoming Seniors. Yet they possessed the utmost
confidence and the faith in their immediate successors. For, if they,
who had as mere groping neophytes in the field of leadership, had
emerged from the battle unscathed, would such not be the case for
those who would come after them? Who but those who had lived through
an experience can know how it is to be in the thick of the fight --
and then to do well and intuitively know that the others who follow
would also triumph over all odds?

And who but Seniors can dream the rosiest dreams about Graduation Day
and be dismayed by the pace with which that day approaches-- with the
pace of an anticlimactic event? For what is it but anticlimax dream
about once-in-a-lifetime moment, and then find yourself suddenly in
the midst of that dream?

For such was the case for the graduates of 1965. That graduation day,
graduation seemed to be an anticlimax to them. After four years of
eager anticipation, they were suddenly marching down the aisle in
their immaculate cap and gown, with mingled and inexplicable
feelings. That day, they heard their co-graduates thank their parents
and mentors who had guided them through High School. They heard their
co-graduates vow to remember Prep, to come home to her so often. And
deep in their hearts , the graduates vowed likewise.

And then they were ascending the stairs to receive their diplomas and
the felicitations of their superiors. and then, they were applauding
their schoolmates who had proven equal to the task, the awardees of
the year. And then, the rites were ending. Only then did they realize
that graduation is not an anticlimax, but a culmination and a
beginning -- the culmination of their high school life, and the
beginning of their preparation for the battle of life in this cruel
and often heartless world. They needed arms, undoubtedly, and what
better arms than their youth, their vigor and confidence, their will
to work-- their education from Prep.

And so, this year 1965, another bunch of graduates leave the soaring
pillars of Prep and go out into the world to eke out an existence for
themselves. Will they succeed or will they fail? Only tiem will tell.
But as they traverse life, these graduates will look back and recall
with poignancy their high school life, their joys and sorrows, their
pitfalls and victories, their work and play, their class History.