The Struggling Blogger

It’s always nice to hear good news about your former classmates in high school. It always brings a smile on one’s face to know that they are doing good and getting successes left and right.

I’ve heard a lot of my classmates who were doing good, whether here in the Philippines or in other country. But this one definitely tops them all. I have to check and re-read the article to be sure that it was my classmate shaking the hands of US President George W. Bush in picture.

And indeed, it was him!

His name is Giovanni Balingit, who is now an officer in the US Navy. I followed a link in Inquirer that reads “Filipino receives US ‘Spirit of Hope’ award” and I was surprised to see that it was him!

It would be a lie if I say that I was close to him during our high school days, because I was not, but we’re not alienated from each other either. We just have different group of friends. They were the bigger guys, the ‘toughies’ so to speak.

But he is one classmate with whom you would always want to be close with, because he is the ‘class monitor,’ the person who checks the attendance of the boys to make sure that no one cuts class. We were classmates in our freshmen and sophomore years.

I never heard of him after we graduated from high school. Although the news article said he took up Business Administration too in same school we had our high school - Holy Angel University.

The article said, Giovy, as some of our friends called him then, received the Bob Hope award because of his selfless dedication in the performance of his duties. The caption in the photo reads:

Giovanni Balingit gets the red carpet treatment in the White House, as he is received no less than by President George W. Bush, who conferred on him in September 2008 the prestigious Spirit of Hope award for dedicating his life to public service

As of this writing, I still cannot believe that it was my classmate there in picture shaking the hands of the former US president.

But I am definitely happy for him for what he had achieved, and I am proud to be his former classmates

And whether he would be going back to the Philippines someday, the article has this in the last part:

Going back to the Philippines for good will always be a possibility in the future, he said.

It is not only in America where they can fulfill their dreams, he said. “It is any place where they can be happy with what they are doing.”

2010 would be a great time for him to come, because next year, our batch - the Primemovers, will be hosting the Grand Alumni Homecoming.

This entry was posted on Sunday, May 31st, 2009 at 9:41 am and is filed under Announcement, Global Filipino, In the news, Reflections, celebrities, icon, internet, links, reactions.You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.