Subtle Lies

Green Card About a month ago, I watched this Filipino TV show where a friend of the heroine suggested a solution to her problem: marry an American guy to get a green card. She is conflicted about this advice because she considers marriage sacred. So she goes to church to pray about it. She sees … Continue reading Subtle Lies

Stay

* Part II: A reflection of the time I left home as an Overseas Filipino Worker or OFW. Filipino workforce is the number one export of the Philippines. You can read Part I here.* Arriving In A Strange Land It was bright. Yet the room was dimly lit. Everything was so vivid to me. I … Continue reading Stay

Leave

* Part I: A reflection of the time I left home as an Overseas Filipino Worker or OFW.  Filipino workforce is the number one export of the Philippines.* It was dark. Nothing was visible. All seemed to have disappeared. Darkness enveloped everything that night. Thick. Heavy. Felt as though it was waiting to swallow me … Continue reading Leave

In Running After My American Dream

A few weeks ago, a friend left for the States on a new teaching opportunity. She is not the first one of my friends to leave for the US after I myself left my hometown for Windsor, North Carolina. Yet for some reason I seem to be re-living that episode in my life when I found out about her trip. I began retracing my steps from where I am now to my journey not too long ago.

My father was the one who sowed the seed of the American dream in me. I was in high school when he showed me a newspaper article about how American schools would need foreign teachers to come and teach in the next few years. He said if I decide to be a teacher, this can be my chance to go and have a better life.

I came from a financially struggling family. So I wanted that better life, the American dream, but I wasn’t sure about the teaching part.
Continue reading “In Running After My American Dream”