57-year-old woman finally gets high school diploma

TARLAC CITY — A 57-year-old woman received the loudest applause last Tuesday when she received her diploma for completing junior high school at Tarlac National High School here.

Milagros Santos Cayabyab, fondly called “Nanay Mila,” was one of 828 students who were honored during the moving up ceremony here. She will enroll in the senior high school program in June.

Vocational courses

“I was close to tears but I was also very happy to receive so much love from everyone. As I marched past them, the teachers waved, so I kept bowing, just to stop myself from crying on stage,” said Cayabyab, who put herself through junior high school by offering reflexology and make-up services.

She had completed grade school but did not proceed to high school, taking vocational courses instead at Wesley Divinity School in Cabanatuan City.

Dr. Epifania Dungca, school principal, said some teachers had urged Cayabyab to take the open high school program or to study under the government’s alternative learning system.

Excelled in Filipino

But Cayabyab wanted to learn her lessons in the classroom along with her much younger classmates.

“Age has nothing to do with learning. I did not aspire for more money. But when I reflect on the certificates I received, plus this new one, I tell myself, ‘This is what I have achieved,’” she said.

The school adviser, Madeline Supan, said Cayabyab excelled in the Filipino subject.

“When she came to school, she lugged a heavy bag, which she rolled around in a trolley before carrying it to her classroom. She attended every class, and had been absent only when she fell ill,” Supan said.

“She became my student when she enrolled in Grade 7. She returned to my class when she enrolled in Grade 10,” she said, adding that Cayabyab was humble and would approach her when she could no longer understand the lesson.

Cayabyab said she intended to complete high school before she served as a pastor of United Methodist Church here.