Welcome To The Real World

Hello, still here. I have been busy and not so busy, but I've not made time to write anything down. Not that I had much to blog about, it's just been work and rest and work and rest. 

Today, a world leader has been reelected. I was monitoring the exit polls up to sometime past 11am when Obama was projected to win. And so the lunchtime topic was fairly political, and if you know me I love a good dose of political jibber jabber.

It's just that this time, I was in a circle wherein at least a couple of standpoints were completely opposite of mine. I can see that they truly believe in their arguments about this and that that I just sat silent knowing that if I speak up I'll just get into an argument I am not willing to lose. I know everyone's opinion varies, and I have friends who support candidates or policies other than my own, but good Yoda how extremely polar our views are.

But in the end, I can see that this difference in political stance stems from our difference in religious convictions. Before anything else, what ever happened to the segregation between church and state? There really are people whose votes are swayed by religion, why am I still surprised? Sure the church still has power in a number of communities, but really is it that difficult to vote for someone who is not a Christian or a member of your faith? Is it too much to ask for equality and choice that one must be cast off his/ her religion? It does make sense that if your religion believes in XYZ and you believe in the opposite of Z you must not me really a believer of that religion, but are we that one dimensional and are religions that black and white? I have so may issues with their statements my mind gets so wired whenever I think about it.

With this I also realized, how should one vote? Should one cast his vote to someone he sees eye to eye with, or to someone who just has better capacity to get the job done? I would compare this to an HR staff weighing a candidate's interview vs his actual resume and what would be more significant, but since I'm nowhere near a career in HR I'm just making an assumption.

I am my own blend of conservative and liberal, but after that lunch I've never felt more liberal. I am all for unity and equality and choice, I feel that I would never vote for anyone who contradicts that or be really friends with someone who doesn't support those similarly as I do. While that lunch discussion wasn't as political as I originally thought, it was eye opening with regards to what others give importance to. People make choices based on a number of core principles that they hold and deem applicable to the situation, and it really does vary sometime by a mile sometimes by a dimension. I guess such is the fact of life: different people, different truths.

The Terminal

I live in a country where a lot of people are obsessed with immigrating out of the country, particularly to America. It's an endemic disease that's been passed on by past colonizers, and is unfortunately very much kept alive by today's media, trends and even food. Even I am not completely immune to this virus, when it comes to technology and innovation I always look West. Nonetheless, I feel that in the end I will always want to call this humble, humid and hospitable country my home.

It is this idea of home and love of country that really struck me with The Terminal. A first time traveller to the USA with limited English, Victor Navorsky is a Krakhozian national forced to stay in Terminal 67 of JFK after his country entered civil war while he was on air. The government has been overthrown and the new regime has not been recognized by the US so Victor's papers are moot. I can only imagine how that would feel -- a person without a place in the world. 

Victor has been given several chances to sneak his way out of his predicament, both legally and not so legally but he refused. He was going to America with a purpose and he wanted to do that without compromising his position nor his beliefs. Because his country is in a state of civil war, he could have sought refuge in the US if he wanted to but he held firm, he loved his country even if it was in a state of unrest and he still wanted to come home to Krakhozia.

It's one of those movies that for me are really good because I feel so much for the movie. I am rooting so much for Victor, I am affected with the immigrants' situations and like Victor I hold my country very dear to my heart despite its flaws and shortcomings. 

I get high with a little help from my friends.

At this point, so close to coming back, is where I'm terribly missing home. I've sort of been counting down the days to our departure for a few weeks now. Today starts the last week of my stay here and all I can think about is what I want to do, eat and see when I get back. I've never been the kind who gets really homesick and it's funny I'm like this now. I'm used to living apart from family since high school (since Pisay, really) and I'm not the cariñosa type at all. But home is home, and I can't wait to go back to GMT +8.

This longing to go home peaked when I started to think and plan about the trip some of my friends and I will be taking in July. Being out of college I always look forward to spending time with friends, chatting and catching up, sometimes reminiscing and dreaming even. Sometimes we'd get to serious stuff, what we want to do with our lives, our current positions. What strikes me, after some thought, is how similar our thinking are at times. Maybe that's why we're friends, or somehow because we're friends we feed ideas off each other that we've grow to a certain inclination as a group. It's always wonderful to talk with people whom you can talk anything and everything about, without fear of offending or misunderstanding. It's not about agreeing on the same things, but actually sparking intellectual conversations. But of course when it comes to gossip, no specific level or frame of mind is really needed. :)

On some level, I am a bit saddened that I got to go around and introduce to my relatives my work friends instead of my dearest friends. I know it's mean to think this, but somehow there's this impression my relatives have that my work friends and I are closer than we really are and I don't like it. I wish my becky friends were with me in New York. I wish my geeky physics friends were with me in Chicago. I wish my brothers and cousins were with me in Wisconsin. Maybe it's just the homesickness that's talking because I did have a good time with my work friends, but I just feel so meh thinking how I wish my actual friends were with me.

I don't really have a list of things I tick off when I make friends, I just go by how things go. But one thing I know is that I gravitate to people who are tolerant and open minded rather than discriminating and picky. I've made friends here and there but there are always certain people who will speak to you more plus I don't think I consider someone a treasured friend that easily. That said, I am not discounting the possibility of adding some more people into my inner circles, it's just that I'm the type who likes small tight groups.

Thankfully, in a week's time I'll be back in Manila. Never having stayed this far away from home before, I really feel that Manila is where I want to be; counterarguments are aplenty and to explain myself would steer this entry off its already wonky track so let's leave it at that. I love to travel and I want to travel as much as I could, but my heart belongs to the Philippines for so many reasons starting with the people who keep me happy and sane.