It’s been 5 months, 9 days, 6 hours, 20 minutes and 35 seconds when the Boeing flight number unknown landed in San Francisco Int’l Airport. Since then, life has been a combination of climactic life experience and the opposites.
I am emancipated from dependency the time I set foot in this land. Far beyond the physical dependency of a son to his mother and father. I am christened to self-govern. It’s ‘Independence’ to the fullest.
This migration is medley of crest and nadir. I have longed of navigating the world but at the same I want to be with my friends and family back h0me. I could reestablish myself but I need to reestablish relationships again.
After five months of staying here. I experience the joy of having my first paycheck; opened my own savings and checking account, treat myself with scrumptious foods, bought a local and roaming phone, send money back home, bought my first MP3 Player (zune 120). All of that in my first paycheck. Even my payroll manager is smiling all the way when she saw how spirited I am for my first paycheck
I’m disappointed by not making it in school last fall semester (july 2008). I am enrolled in a degree in school but my tuition is too costly for me to handle and it’s quite impractical to enroll yet. My tuition would cost me USD200 per unit since I’m still under the classification of non-californian resident/ international student. I should stay for at least a year and a day for me to qualify for the subsidized tuition of USD20/unit.
Homeboy and without nothing to do, I decided to look for a job. Timing, there is a new store opening about month when we got here. It will only take you about a minute and a half walking. You can even see the store in my room.
The interview went well. They can’t believed the fact that it’ll be my first job. Then I realized the social implications of being ’18’ in this country. I applied for any jobs available and since I’m quite literate and proficient they put me as a cashier (they really told me that. lols). The hell I know about US bills and coins that time. I didn’t even know the slang on how they’re called, then I crammed. I asked lola to give me some bills to review. It’ll take time to get used to it.
The first day of training, I am fretting. My nerves are all over my body-worst, in my hands. Then that time, I discover nickel. The heck about that nickel, lola didn’t gave any sample of 5cents. I just laughed after. That’s how unfamiliar I am with their bills.
Working here is quite rewarding. The good thing is it makes me preoccupied and not think of the emoness anymore. Really, after almost week of just staying at home I feel my hair (especially the bangs) grew abnormally fast, errr. I’m getting crazy, haha.
Then this is when another realization will come into place. The image of people living in the US and the family left behind in the Philippines. Now, I’m also ‘responsible’ of sending money and packages back home. There’s no problem about that, it’s just now that I’m here that I understood that there is no difference on how people earn money- by hardwork . People here almost sleep in their work thinking of all the bills and credits to pay. Time here goes too fast.
Talk about human relationships here. There is a scarce amount of social targets here. They are either at work or in school. The neighborhood itself is too quiet to handle, well for me who came from a densely populated community in Caloocan. Errr, sometime I wanna shout for them to go out. But, this statistic brings the remaining blood relative here much closer.
Migrating is, as I said, a combination of crest and nadir. It has it’s highest and lowest point. It is a matter of test whether you’ll raise your hand to surrender or keep yourself focused on your goal. There is no easy thing in this world. I want growth and together with the opportunity to migrate, I grabbed it. It’s not giving up on what I had back home, it’s more on adding up. It’s a way to find purpose. I’m still a friend and it’s a test of distance. I’m still a family and it’s a test of trust. I might be way too far, but I’m still here just IN MIGRATION.
burubudoyski 