11/07/2025
A message to parents and future parents...
"THINK BEFORE YOU CREATE LIFE"
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UP GRADUATE GIVES HEARTFELT SPEECH -
“Sana Hindi N’yo Na Lang Ako Pinanganak”
(A Graduation Speech That Shook the Nation)
In a society that romanticizes resilience but often overlooks the pain that fuels it, the graduation post of Jaynard, a Magna Cum Laude Chemical Engineering graduate from the University of the Philippines Los Baños.was not just a story. It was a mirror. A cry. A plea for understanding.
"Sana hindi n’yo na lang ako pinanganak."
It is a sentence that cuts deep, not just for parents, but for anyone who has ever questioned their place in this world. Jaynard’s post didn’t go viral because it was sensational. It resonated because it was real.
•Growing Up with Dreams Bigger Than Circumstances
Jaynard grew up in a home filled with love but void of luxury, comfort, or even stability. His parents were hardworking, his father juggling every job he could find and his mother taking on multiple roles just to put food on the table. Yet, love does not erase hunger. It does not pay tuition. It cannot silence the questions a young mind asks when it sees his peers eating full meals while he and his brother split a single egg, fighting silently over who got the yolk.
He excelled in school, not because it was easy, but because it was the only way out. He believed in education the way some people believe in miracles. But hope is heavy when it’s carried alone.
The sadness in his words is not rooted in hate or ingratitude, but in exhaustion. In the relentless burden of being the family’s hope. Of constantly sacrificing one’s own desires just to survive just to make meaning of the suffering.
•When Childhood is a Battlefield
At only 11, Jaynard had his first taste of deep emotional despair. A simple request to ride with his friends during a local fiesta was denied due to lack of money. A child’s innocent wish turned into a bitter reminder of poverty’s grip. It wasn’t just about the ride; it was about being reminded, again, that they didn’t have enough. That he didn’t have enough.
That night, he uttered it for the first time: “Sana hindi n’yo na lang ako pinanganak.”
To some, this may sound ungrateful. But to those who have known poverty intimately, it’s not about blaming your parents. It’s about the heartbreak of knowing they’ve given everything, and still, it’s not enough.
•Even in College: Hunger, Guilt, and a Heavy Crown
Fast forward to UP scholarships, stipends, and a title: “Iskolar ng Bayan.” But while he bore that title with pride, he also bore the weight of unpaid debts, of siblings still in need, of bills piling up. His allowance, instead of covering his daily needs, was sent home. His stomach empty, his mind tired, he whispered those painful words again.
In those moments, he didn’t hate his parents, he hurt for them. He grieved not only for his own struggles, but for the dreams his parents never got to chase. What if his father had become the engineer? What if his mother, brilliant and ambitious, had finished college and become a professional?
“Don’t Let Your Child Be Like Me.”
This wasn’t a message of bitterness. It was a warning.
“Parenthood isn’t just about love,” Jaynard stressed. “It’s about readiness.”
He wasn’t condemning his parents. He was confronting a cycle, a system where people bring life into the world out of pressure, tradition, or accident, without the resources to truly nurture it. Where poverty births more poverty. Where children grow up carrying not just their own burdens, but the dreams and debts of the generation before them.
•To future parents, he had a powerful message: Think. Wait. Prepare. Don’t have a child simply because “it’s time” or “everyone else does.” Ask: Can I give them a life where they don’t have to choose between eating and studying? Where they don’t have to feel guilty for existing?
•And Yet, Love Endures
Despite the pain, Jaynard never stopped loving his parents. His story is filled with longing for a better life, not just for himself but for them. When his mother responded publicly, affirming her love and pride for her son, it was a full-circle moment.
She had no regrets. Her child, despite the odds, had become someone extraordinary. And that, perhaps, was worth everything.
•To the Silent Fighters: You Are Not Alone
To every student who skipped meals to buy school supplies. To every eldest child who became second parent. To every dreamer forced to grow up too soon:
Your pain is valid. Your journey is hard. But you are not alone.
As Jaynard said, “Living in poverty is no joke. But let’s not lose hope.”
Let us dream of a world where no child has to justify their birth. Where being born poor doesn’t mean being born doomed. Let us break the cycle, through compassion, through accountability, through readiness.
So that one day, no child will ever have to say,
“Sana hindi n’yo na lang ako pinanganak.”
And instead say,
“Salamat, dahil kahit mahirap, hindi ninyo ako pinabayaan.”
May this story spark not just empathy, but action. Toward a future where every child is a choice, a blessing, and a promise fulfilled.
-GalawangFrancisco
•In Photo: Jaynard, a Magna Cum Laude Chemical Engineering graduate from the University of the Philippines Los Baños
