To the sky
As a little girl, Angeline Maniago was quite shy. She grew up not wanting to be in the limelight. She was timid, somewhat quiet, and reserved. She admitted to being less confident than her peers. She may once be unsure of herself, but if there’s one thing she’s sure about, it’s this: what you think is what you become. So, she thought she was going to fly high in the sky as a cabin crew. It was the dream of the young Angeline. Now, it is her reality.
Angeline Maniago is a young alumna of the Holy Cross College. She finished high school here as a part of batch 2011. Ten years after she said goodbye to her high school alma mater, the memories she made and experiences she had here as a Crucian are still fresh in her mind.
In an interview in Radio Libertas program Alumni Spotlight, she recalled how she and her friends used to eat snacks after classes and share laughter and stories sat on the benches on the school grounds. Up until now, she also still remembers the names of her advisers from freshman to senior year.
It was also in Holy Cross College where she learned to be more confident and developed her self-esteem — traits, she said, that are very important for a flight attendant such as herself.
“Holy Cross College taught me how to socialize… [The school] involved me in many activities,” she said in the Kapampangan language.
Apart from this, Angeline also learned grit and persistence at Holy Cross College. Angeline may be successful now, but she also had her fair share of struggles and sacrifices before she has landed her dream job.
From being a shy girl in high school, Ms. Angeline Maniago transformed into a confident young lady who soars the sky and mingles with people from different cultures. 
From being a shy girl in high school, Ms. Angeline Maniago transformed into a confident young lady who soars the sky and mingles with people from different cultures. 
From being a shy girl in high school, Ms. Angeline Maniago transformed into a confident young lady who soars the sky and mingles with people from different cultures. 
From being a shy girl in high school, Ms. Angeline Maniago transformed into a confident young lady who soars the sky and mingles with people from different cultures. 
From being a shy girl in high school, Ms. Angeline Maniago transformed into a confident young lady who soars the sky and mingles with people from different cultures. 
From being a shy girl in high school, Ms. Angeline Maniago transformed into a confident young lady who soars the sky and mingles with people from different cultures. 
From being a shy girl in high school, Ms. Angeline Maniago transformed into a confident young lady who soars the sky and mingles with people from different cultures. 
From being a shy girl in high school, Ms. Angeline Maniago transformed into a confident young lady who soars the sky and mingles with people from different cultures.
Now, she’s working her dream job at a five-star airline company, living her best life, and traveling the world while she’s at it.
She shared she was rejected seven times by different airline companies. But she did not see this as the finish line. Rejections are smaller than her dreams, she believes. So she carried on, sent out applications, went on an interview after another until a company saw her potential.
“When I was a student, I learned that you shouldn’t give up on your dreams. When I was a student, I was not one of the honor students, but I strived hard so that I can prove myself,” she recounted.
Now, Angeline travels around the world — a life dreamed by many of us. But even when she has literally reached the sky, she doesn’t forget to keep her feet on the ground and look back to thank those who helped lift her, like Holy Cross College.
She is based in Qatar now, but she wishes to go back home and visit her alma mater, which witnessed her transform from a shy little kid to an empowered woman — proud of her beginnings, her rejections, and everything along her journey up the sky.