Christmas day 2016, destruction came.
New Year's Day 2017 was spent in the cover of darkness.
Many of us have no roofs nor houses to gather our families for the traditional media noche.
Amazingly, we still hear the "Happy New Year...," greetings, perhaps even louder.
We mean it, perhaps even more deeply, and we needed it in the face of uncertainty.
No one was spared, not even the school, our beloved SAVS.
Nina, a beautiful name for a powerful storm, left us beaten and destroyed.
We were... but not for long.
Our will and our spirit are stronger than any storm.
Our bonds are impregnable that no element is powerful enough to destroy.
With all the wreckage still visible, and the place where we gather to be united for many causes lie in ruins, the 48th birthday of our beloved school is looming.
Why do we have to celebrate it this time?
And we hear the resounding unison of our throughts asking, "Why not?"
And so with hands still weary, we gathered the pieces that Nina scattered.
And in the process, we were wounded, we were scared, we were almost discouraged.
Yet we persisted.
Because looking back, those who came before us never gave up in the face of perhaps even greater challenges.
Their collective stories, our history, is worth celebrating.
We persisted because even though we were shattered, we did not allow ourselves to be defeated.
Our resiliency is worth celebrating.
And we persisted because our future lies in our ability to continually inspire one another in dedicating ourselves to that which is good.
Our humanity is worth celebrating...
Images are from SAVSonline facebook page.
