From Darkness to Light

CEBU, Philippines -  That if the only thing you planned for was never yours to have in the end? Will you be strong and have a positive outlook in life that something brighter awaits?

Annie Fe Perez, a third year University of the Philippines Cebu (UP Cebu) Mass Communication student, never ceased to be optimistic and remained strong as things turned out not the way she planned it to be.

"For the whole second year, wa ko'y laing gibuhat, sige ra jud ko of sunod ni Chang (Charisse Ursal, Chairperson of Communicators of UP last year), unsa ang buhaton sa chairperson, unsa ang iyang mga sayop kay willing lagi ko mosalo sa work (For the whole second year, I did nothing but observe Chang, from the functions of being a chairperson to learning from her mistakes because I was willing to take the work)," Perez narrated.

Comm-UP is the official organization of UP Cebu Mass Communication students where Perez worked as Vice-President External (VP External) on her second year in college and ran as chairperson for the succeeding year. However, she didn't win the position she badly wanted to be. 

It was a big deal for her because since elementary and up until now, she has always been active in her academics, as well as in extra-curricular activities, showing the natural leader in her.

Perez was a consistent first honor awardee in her elementary years. She was also awarded the Principal's medallion for two years for consistently having a grade not lower than 95, allowing her two years of free tuition at Matilda L. Bradford Christian School.

At a young age, she was able to sharpen her abilities by joining various essay, math and sciences, and scrabble contests.

In high school, she was able to retain her position as the top of her class and graduated valedictorian at Cebu Normal University (CNU).

She bade her high school goodbye by receiving different recognitions. Some of them were the ABS-CBN Medal of Excellence Award, Zonta Excellence Award, Youth Leadership Award as the President of the Student Council, Don Sergio Osmeña Excellence Award and Best in Social Science award.

Putting academics aside, she won second in the Water Quiz Bowl sponsored by the Metro Cebu Water District (MCWD) and the Cebu City government, twice champion in the Singing Idol Competition, and attended the National Leadership Training for Student Government Officers at Baguio City.

Adding to her long list of achievements, Perez was one of the students who won for three consecutive years in CNU's Speech Fest, an annual event that has broadcasting, radio drama, impromptu speaking and on the spot advertisement contests. She was news chief of the team.

She also pursued her passion for music as she joined ENSEMBLE, a violin, cello and viola musical group.

Appointed as the concert mistress where Perez served as the right hand of the conductor, she took charge in times when the conductor was not around.

Her affiliation to the group led her to play in prestige functions at the Cebu Country Club, Crown Regency and even in the ASEAN Summit.

The group was also hired by Bigfoot, a film academy, to be part of the student film entitled "Melody" that won Best Cinematography and Best Picture. 

It also enabled her to win the Service Award during her graduation.

In college, she did not stop chasing her dreams and set the standards a bit higher.

For four semesters now, Perez is a persistent University Scholar of UP Cebu, maintaining a general average grade of not more than 1.25, 1 being the highest. 

She also managed her time juggling between academics and responsibilities being the Editor-in-Chief of TUG-ANI, the Official Publication of UP Cebu last school year. She was previously with LANOG, Official Publication of COMM-UP as the Managing Editor and at the same time news writer. Then she joined TUG-ANI.

On her creative side, Perez garnered Best Screenplay and Best Picture on their group film entitled "Armrest" during the "Zoom In, Zoom out," a film fest of Humanities 1 students of UP Cebu. And a Best Cinematography for a group film about Nude Painting during last year's UPelikula, an annual and the official film fest of the same school.

Annie found a way in her hectic schedule to give vent on her passion for music, this time teaching children how to play musical instruments.

Currently, she is a violin teacher at Cebu Music Learning Center.

On the other hand, being last year's Vice-President External, Annie represented the school in the Cebu Alliance of Mass Communication Students (CAMS) and took charge in UP's turn in DYAB's Sunday weekly program "Sugbuanon na ni" where students take turns in presenting Sugbuanon poems, songs and dramas.

Thus, Perez looked forward to become Comm UP chair and narrated that she went into depression for a month. But she made herself busy to ease the pain.

It was after her fall when another offer came.

Perez is known to contribute news items to the three major newspaper dailies in the metro. She said that it became her habit to gather news stories because of her passion for writing and at the same time having the fulfilment of seeing her name in the papers.

The Freeman offered her a regular job as a youth columnist. She began earning money on the thing she really likes doing.

 "Some things are really not meant for you," Perez reflected. Then added that God will always have bigger plans.

She is just a nineteen year old student. But she has been able to juggle her time between academics and extra curriculars that makes her successful. She proves that as long as one remains strong, one can succeed.

 As Perez shared, "In everything, you must be excellent. Never settle for mediocrity and give your best at all times."  (FREEMAN)