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UP graduate goes viral for grabbing opportunity to meet Atom Araullo at graduation
A new graduate from the University of the Philippines Baguio is making rounds online after grabbing the opportunity to meet Atom Araullo at her commencement ceremony.
On Instagram, a user named Vinia shared a now-viral reel in which she took the stage to claim her diploma. But before stepping off the stage, she turned around to shake hands with their commencement speaker, the award-winning Kapuso journalist.
“When Atom Araullo is your commencement speaker, you make the most of the moment,” she wrote.
“He was already right there!” she added. “So nice to meet you sir, [Atom].”
In the comments section, Atom replied, “‘Yan ang iskolar ng bayan!” followed by a laughing emoji.
As of writing, Vinia’s reel has amassed over 2.7 million views.
In a separate TikTok post, Vinia’s sister, Eya, shared a video showing the exact moment her sister shook hands with Atom, catching her by surprise.
“Out of all the graduates, she's the only one who did THAT, slayed and gets kita,” she said.
Meanwhile, in Atom’s commencement speech, he talked about journalism, dreams, failures, and what it means to be “the right kind of difficult.”
“The country does not need more ‘successful’ people who are pleasant, polished, and harmless. It needs people who are difficult to fool, difficult to buy, difficult to discourage, difficult to turn indifferent,” he said in his speech.
In June, Atom was named TV Broadcaster of the Year at the Pro Patria Journalism Award of the Rotary Club of Manila.
—Hermes Joy Tunac/JCB, GMA News
