“Shoot for the moon; even if you miss, you’ll land among the stars.”

Adonis Cayanan recalled the instant when the numbers appeared on his screen: Momentary blankness. Complete numbness.

He had scored 91.85% in the September 2026 Civil Engineering Licensure Examination (CELE), placing him among the country’s top examinees — just 0.10 percentage points short of the Top 10.

For Cayanan, a Holy Angel University (HAU) summa cum laude graduate, batch valedictorian, and former University Student Council (USC) president, the result marked an unfamiliar kind of “almost.”

After years of academic excellence, including a college general weighted average (GWA) of 1.0067, he had come close to another milestone without reaching it.

Yet the narrow miss did not erase what he had achieved.

“A 0.10% margin does not diminish the work, the knowledge earned, or the privilege of now holding the license,” he shared.

What stayed with him after the results, he shared, was not regret but the certainty that he had given everything he had.

The weight of titles

Success in college inevitably comes with its own weight — and by the time he crossed the stage as valedictorian and USC president, Cayanan was already carrying plenty.

“Carrying those titles naturally brought expectations from the people around me, and inevitably, from within myself,” he said.

Rather than let that pressure define his worth, he treated his past honors as proof — not meant to be a pedestal to prove.

“With discipline, focus, and faith, I could push my limits even further,” Cayanan added.

So, he aimed high. His target going into the Civil Engineering Licensure Exam (CELE) went well beyond passing — he was aiming to rank first, a goal so ambitious he admitted it took him a moment to say out loud.

“Shoot for the moon; even if you miss, you’ll land among the stars,” he said, citing the line that shaped his approach.

The goal was never about matching his college record for its own sake. Aiming for the highest peak meant preparing at his highest standard — and that standard, once built, was his to keep, no matter where the results eventually placed him.

What lies behind the results

His intensive review began in June, right after he turned over the USC presidency. The plan, on paper, was precise — an early body clock, a picture-perfect timetable, discipline engineered down to the hour.

He soon realized that sticking to such a strict schedule was very challenging, a lesson that reshaped his approach to studying.

“In reality, that rigid schedule did not pan out,” Cayanan said, “And that is completely fine.”

What he took from the experience instead was that review styles are never one-size-fits-all, and that a 5 a.m. alarm that doesn’t fit a person’s natural rhythm shouldn’t be forced onto them like a borrowed template.

What replaced the schedule was consistency. He studied everyday, even on weekends, even on days when other commitments pared his study time down to under five hours.

“What truly matters, and what was undoubtedly the most challenging part of the process, is having the non-negotiable discipline to show up every day,” he expressed. “No zero days kumbaga.”

Pressure sat in the background for all four months of review, threading through both the people around him and his own ambitions for himself. It never broke him; if anything, he has always worked better under tension than without it.

“Everything happens for a reason, and genuine peace comes from knowing you gave everything you had,” he said. “Regret is a normal human feeling, but it has no room to linger in your heart when you know you left every ounce of effort on the table.”

Beyond the decimal difference

That belief was put to the test the day the results came out.

Missing a national Top 10 spot by a fraction of a percent was a hard thing to sit with, especially after four months of preparing for every possible question the exam could throw at him. But the numbness eventually gave way to something steadier, something closer to clarity than defeat.

“While we can fully control our preparation, we cannot control every detail of the outcome,” he said. “Life doesn’t always align with our exact scripts, and that’s alright.”

In a Facebook post, he called “almost” a painful word — while still naming, in the same breath, how much he had to be grateful for.

“It feels paradoxical to grieve a narrow miss while simultaneously overflowing with gratitude for the blessings in front of you,” he said. “But both feelings are entirely valid.”

The experience did not change how he defines success — if anything, it confirmed it. To him, simply having the courage to show up every day, put in honest work, and endure to the finish line is already a victory.

“Landing the milestone itself is just the bonus.”

Holding the bar gently

Looking back, what stays with Cayanan isn’t the ranking he missed, but a conviction he’s come to hold about ambition itself — a mindset he’s watched trap students who, like him, are chasing their own track record.

“We get so caught up moving from one goal to the next that we forget to pause and acknowledge how far we have come,” he said.

Ambition keeps people moving, especially on the days when exhaustion and self-doubt start creeping in. But past achievements, he insists, should be treated as fuel, never as a sentence to serve out. The key is learning to separate self-worth from an unbroken streak of success, and to chase goals for oneself.

“Whatever you set out to achieve, make sure you are doing it for yourself — not to defend an image or appease the expectations of others,” he shared. “It is vital to develop the mindset of continuing no matter what, recognizing that setbacks, detours, and falling short of a goal are inevitable parts of the process, not reflections of your inadequacy.”

“Failure does not erase your capability; it simply prepares you for the next chapter.”

Summa cum laude. Valedictorian. Student leader. Now, a licensed civil engineer — 0.10% from a Top 10 finish, with a 91.85% rating to show for it.

But it is not the number Cayanan carries forward. It is the habit of showing up, the peace that came after acceptance, and the belief that the journey itself was always worth it.