Philippine Visit 2016 Week 1 (June 20-25, 2016)

6/28/2016

"Come, thou shalt go home, and we'll have flesh for holidays, fish for fasting-days, and moreo'er, puddings and flapjacks, and thou shalt be welcome."
Fisherman, PERICLES

Most people from Group 48 (if not all) would know that visiting home would be a big thing for me. Speaking about origin and homeland was difficult during my first year because I left home still carrying baggages from my past. As much as my heart was full of hope and promise of entering a new life it also carried tinges of bitterness, anger and resentment together with some monsters I have not made peace with. Yet the prospect of my brother's college graduation loomed and it seemed missing this life event would cost more in the long-term than circumventing it in fear of possible "retrograde." In the days of late April this year when my father and I were conversing via email about the possibility of my coming home for the summer, I was in a "rut." I was deep into the training and was about to go into showings week yet the summer move-out schedule for all students currently living in the dorms was also impending. An apartment was nowhere in sight. I told my father that I did not know if I can come home and my priority was to find a roof over my head and when that is settled I will get back to him.
Voila. I found an apartment I liked enough and fought for it to be mine (NYC Real Estate can be harsh). Once the lease signing was scheduled I booked a round-trip ticket to the Philippines in less than a month before the graduation ceremony.