No matter how “Americanized” I get, now matter how long I’ve been away, I have always had an interest into where I came from. There are always “what ifs” in life, what if I had grown up in the Philippines? What if my family had never moved to the States? What would my life be like? I guess it was destiny? or just chance? I surely had no control of it, it was the decision of my parents on where I grew up where I did, and where I would be living the majority of my life.   

This past May was pretty awesome, I had the opportunity to go back to the Philippines after a 23 year absence. 23 years is a long time, I was looking forward to not only to reconnecting with the lifestyle, the culture, and the customs there, but I mostly looking forward to reconnecting with my family. With regards to my family in the Philippines, all I can say is that, I’m lucky, I really am, I’m more like blessed. 23 years is a long time, but being around them and getting to know them, the 23 years seems to melt away, it felt as if I had know them all my life. To my family in the Philippines I feel forever indebted to them, they took me in unconditionally with an open heart and treated me like one of there children, with a Filipino style that so hard to replicate here in the States, traditional Pinoy ways that I think a lot of us Fil/Am’s are missing out on.

I saw things and experienced things that you could only find in the Philippines, the crazy traffic, the slums, the weather, the jungles, and just the everyday grind and lifestyle that just have a certain

 flavor that make it uniquely Pinoy, its hard to explain, but coming from LA to the Philippines, you feel like your from another planet. Being Fil/Am it was refreshing living and practicing traditional Pinoy ways, like eating at the table with the rest of your family, “Mano po” having to bless your uncles or male elders, kissing and acknowledging your female relatives every time you wake up in the morning or when you first see them or when you are saying goodbye (saying ‘hello’ and ‘goodbye’ is never, NEVER taken for granted), taking your shoes off before you enter the house -  let’s face it, in the Philippines everyone wears tsinelas, but there are two types, one pair of tsinelas you wear for when you go out and one other pair of tsinelas you wear for just indoors, and finally food, food, food, food, and more food, every gathering no matter how big or small, you will be offered to eat, and it doesn’t matter if you visit a well to do house or a house in the slums, they will offer you something to eat, I didn’t want to rude, so I ate and gain a lot of weight on this trip. 

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To me seeing my lola was worth the trip in itself, just that and I would have been happy. I got to do a lot of things and got to see a lot of places while I was in the Philippines, all of which I’m sure was “just the tip of the Iceberg” of the things you can see and do here. But what I valued most, what I will take back with me and cherish most is the bonding, the time, the connection I had with my family, I valued every week, every day, every hour, and every second that was given to me. It’s not the places I saw that I cared about, but it was the family time, the talks with each one of them, the gatherings, the interaction, the feeling that I was one of them, the sharing of tears, the sharing of laughter, that to me is what I prize most.

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