Coming To Manila: Epilogue

So 13 years after I had last gone to visit the Philippines, I went back again, and now it was over.

As I look back, I have no regrets about our family moving to the States. But at that point, it meant a lot of things.

It meant the family - the grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins - I was so used to seeing on a regular basis was going to be an ocean away.

It meant finding new friends, which is not the easiest thing for a 12 year old about to enter high school.

It meant giving up being Filipino to a certain extent, as you cannot enter a whole new culture and country and expect to not be changed in some way or another.

It meant a lot of things, but in a nutshell, it meant saying goodbye to the only world I had ever known.

There are times when I wonder, what if we ended up not moving to New York. And as unfathomable as it was back then imagining not living in the Philippines, it's just as unfathomable to me now imagining not moving to New York. I appreciate all the opportunities moving here has presented me. And the family and friends I did not get a chance to see as often --- like Tita Thelma (ESPECIALLY Tita Thelma actually) --- I got to see a lot more often from that point on as most of them were based in New York as well.

But the best thing about moving from the Philippines? It made one appreciate all its good and all its bad that much more. And in the end, it makes one even more glad that one's core is a product of all that good, and all that bad.

Manila, Iloilo, Bacolod - they will always be home to me, just like New York will always be home to me as well.

I hope I get to see home more often in the future.

Till then, Coming To Manila is closed.