Choose the difficult

I am honored to address the University of Asia and the Pacific Class of 2025. You graduate from an institution known for quiet and consistent formation, shaping citizens and leaders committed to the common good.

- JAIME AUGUSTO ZOBEL DE AYALA

Being invited here affirms the values we hold in common: the pursuit of excellence, the importance of community and the search for wisdom.

At Ayala, we have long benefited from this kind of formation. Many of our leaders trace their roots here. One of them is Eric Francia, CEO of ACEN, who now leads our transition to renewable energy.

Let me give back to this institution by offering a few reflections, as you enter that often mythified, sometimes feared space we call the "real world." Your class emerges in a time of transition. While your predecessors were shaped by the crisis of the pandemic-by lockdowns, isolation and sudden shifts in learning, you were formed between a fractured world and one anxiously reemerging. Your buzzword was "hybrid," attending some classes in-person and some online. Communities were cautiously rebuilding. People still wore masks and kept their distance. If the pandemic was marked by fear and anxiety, your time was shaped by caution and a different kind of uncertainty.

These difficult circumstances forced you to adapt; to recover from digital fatigue while rebuilding connection. There was a strong desire to overcome a disruption so immense, we had to search for a new way of existing: a "new normal." Just as you were establishing a new rhythm, the world began to reemerge in haste, impatiently. Geopolitical tensions rose. Machines began to think faster-but not always better. The climate crisis has escalated. Public discourse has grown combative. People no longer spoke to understand, but to win. Disinformation accelerated the fragmentation of com-| munities. Content and facts are more accessible than ever. Truth became harder to discern.

This "real world" we are now in is fast, but it lacks wisdom. It is loud but no one is listening. It is hyperconnected, but deeply fragmented. It is uncertain, but it awaits those who choose to act with courage.