A young lady showed that with determination, anyone can achieve their biggest goals in life even if there are seemingly insurmountable odds.
Regine Villamejor, or Rej as those who are close to her would call her, took social media by storm back in 2017 after she shared her story on how she was able to reach her academic aspirations despite the financial challenges she family faces.
Villamejor shared that she was able to finish college by helping her family sell fish in Cebu.
Coming from a poor fishing village of Barangay Taloot, Cebu, Villamejor proudly acknowledged her roots, as well as her parents’ hard work to help her realize her dreams.
“I’m not ashamed to sell fish. My friends know about it. But still, they accept me for who I am. I will always be a proud daughter of a fisherman and a fish vendor,” she said on Facebook referring to her father Raul who is a fisherman and her mother Mary Jane, a fish vendor.
Every day, Villamor recounted, she would wake up at 5 am to help her mother sell fish in the market which required her to carry heavy blocks of ice for the fish.
They would usually earn around 700 pesos a day, just enough for their family to make ends meet.
The young graduate admitted there were times when her parents would argue about where to get money for her tuition fee in the University of San Jose Recoletos.
And when her mother had fallen ill, she carried the task of peddling her father’s catch on her own everyday.
Despite these curveballs that life fired her way at a young age, she never faltered nor thought of quitting amid the odds. She studied hard to get a scholarship, with half of her tuition fee covered by the university.
After four years of burning the midnight oil and pushing herself to the limit, Villamejor not only made it through but graduated Magna cum Laude in the degree Bachelor of Arts in Liberal Arts and Commerce major in Communication and Marketing (LIACOM).
“I am not ashamed to sell fish. My friends know about it but still they accept me for who I am! If I did not go through those challenges, wearing the toga will not be worth it. We should not give up. Poverty is not a hindrance in achieving our dreams,” she said.
Giving an update on her life after she graduated, Villamejor said that she now works as an employee of the sales department at Virginia Food Incorporated/Godspeed Megamerchants Co., Inc.
Armed with her degree and her burning ambition to pull her family out of poverty, Villamejor is ready to face what life has in store for her.
