Romualdez: Live full life, serve others

CEBU CITY—It is not just enough to live life to the fullest. It is equally important to have a meaningful life through service to others.

This was the message of former Leyte Rep. Ferdinand Martin Romualdez to 1,256 senior high school students of the Sisters of Mary School of both Girlstown and Boystown campuses in Talisay City in Cebu province during their commencement exercises on Tuesday.

Romualdez told the graduates to prepare for more challenges as they enter the “real world.”

“You have to live life meaningfully,” he said. “[But] you have to make your life worth living to have a reason to live and to grow beyond your own selves.”

Founded by the Sisters of Mary Congregation, the school serves as an educational facility and home to deserving students from indigent families, providing them with free food, clothing, shelter, medical and dental services and secondary education.

In school, the children are taught about discipline, good working attitude and virtues.

Romualdez said he was introduced to the school through his sister-in-law, Sandy-Prieto Romualdez and her mother, Marixi R. Prieto. The Prietos of the Inquirer Group of Companies originally owned the land where the first Girlstown was built in the Philippines and have been known to be staunch benefactors of the institution.

Romualdez said he reflected on how Msgr. Aloysius “Father Al” Schwartz, founder of the school, became the epitome of living a life of meaning despite the hardships and difficulties that the priest had to deal with, including the debilitating disease amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS.

“In his last years, Father Al could (hardly) move, he was almost incapacitated, yet he continued to do good for the least, the last and the lost of society,” he said.