Adjustments & Surprises

The long journey behind them, the six Filipinos set out separately and at different times of their lives to make this new place their home. It would of course take some adjusting. Dee said that the most difficult thing to adjust to was “the weather and people.” Joy also voiced this concern, citing the winter weather of New York that proved very harsh for her after coming from a tropical country. She remembered being so excited to see snow for the very first time. She loved it for the first half hour and then hated it as soon as she could no longer feel her hands or feet.

Continue reading “Leaving Home: Chapter 2” →

Pictures, Prayers, and Nerves

The plane ride from the Philippines to the United States is a long one and for four of the six relatives interviewed, it was their very first trip on a plane. They voiced feeling a mixture of excitement, nerves, and fear as they flew across the globe. It proved a bittersweet experience for them, knowing that it would be a long time before they could go back home (visas are tricky like that), but they knew that this was what they had to do. The six of them brought the essentials like clothes and money on the journey. A few brought personal items like family pictures, souvenirs from back home for their family members already in the U.S., and items of their faith like rosaries and prayer books. All brought hopes that this new place would be what they were wanted it to be and more. Continue reading “Leaving Home: Chapter 1” →

I’m a first-generation Filipino American, going by the wikipedia definition of “first-generation” as “A native-born citizen or resident of a country whose parents are foreign born.” Both of my parents were born and raised in the Philippines then immigrated to the United States when they were around my age. I was born in Dallas, Texas and lived with them and my older brother before moving to Austin to attend UT for college.

Continue reading “Leaving Home: How My Family Tree Immigrated to the U.S.” →