The hands that once scavenged for scrap bottles and metals to fund her studies are now proudly holding the coveted license that serves as her golden ticket to live her dream as a professional teacher.
April Joy Ceballos proudly announced her latest achievement in a touching Facebook post as she looked back on the struggles she had to endure just to be able to finish her studies and review for the Licensure Examination for Teachers (LET).
“Ang dating bote bakal girl noon ay may lisensya na ngayon,” she dropped the good news along with snapshots of herself hard at work gathering metal scraps and empty bottles and her professional ID card.
The North Cotabato native confessed that while staying in a boarding house to prepare for the LET, hunger tempted her to consider stealing food from her housemates who always had delicious meals.
With nothing to buy for her daily sustenance, she survived on a bag of rice donated by colleagues, paired with a bottle of shrimp paste (alamang) and eggs for three months.
“Mga ka-board [mate] ko noon ay napakabango mga ulam nila tulad ng adobong manok at iba pa tuwing niyaya nila ako na sumabay kami kumain, palagi kong sab isa kanila ay tapos na po ako kumain mga ma’am and sir, pero ang totoo ay nahiya akong sumabay sa kanila,” she recalled.
But she gritted her teeth and resisted the temptation, fearing that karma might hit her back and jeopardize her chance to pass the LET, which she took in March this year.
“Ako ang batang nagpupursiging magbote bakal para man lang may ma allowance ako noong time na ako ay nag-aaral/nagrerebyu pa at walang-wala sa buhay. Sabi ko sa sarili ko na mag pa picture kaya ako while ako ay nag bote bakal para pagdating nang panahon ipost ko ang mga larawang ito pag ako ay makapasa ng board exam,” she added.
And now, her resilience and hard work have paid off. Out of the 102,272 examinees, April Joy was among the lucky 48,005 secondary teachers who passed the LET.
“At dahil sa awa ng Diyos, binigay niya sa akin ang mga hiniling ko sa kanya. Sa mga kabataan na kagaya ko na mahirap, huwag mawalan ng pag-asa laban lang sa buhay. Naniniwala kasi ako na walang mahirap sa taong may pangarap,” she said.
