Once a bird is capable of flight, they leave their nests. Sometimes, even when they aren't able to fly, they leave their nests anyway. Why?
Contrary to popular belief, a nest functions like a red flag to predators. To those out on a hunt, they look at nests like easy targets. Yes, it's a safe haven for birds to lay their eggs and care for them till they hatch, but what is a bird to do when their baby chicks are being sought after?
Not much. They just had to hope that their babies were ready to take flight.
That's how I felt nine years ago on June 12, 2007.
I remember waking up in the wee hours of the morning in my childhood home. The sun hasn't even risen yet. The night before, my father was scrambling around the house, making sure that every single one of our belongings was accounted for. Clothes, an extra pair of shoes, toys that could preoccupy my then six-year-old sister and, most importantly, paperwork. The very last thing I remember about that house was how we, my father, my two sisters and I, lined up, side-by-side, in the middle of our garage. The humid, Philippine air tickled our noses, as tears began to fall down each of our faces. We faced our family in our last moments in that house, hesitant to leave them. Until that morning, I had never seen my grandmother so sad. I couldn't blame her though. Her baby chicks were ready to leave the nest and move halfway across the world. I remember her tight grasp around my little 11-year-old body, the tears spilling onto my shoulders. "Be good to your Papa and your sisters," she said to me, before she loosened her embrace and let us all pile into a van that took us to the airport.
At 20 years old, I look back on that day and think about all the life-changing experiences (literally life-changing) that happened to my family and shaped me into who I am today.
Living in a different country is all about adapting. A question that I get asked frequently is how I am able to speak English so well. "Where did you learn your English" or "oh my, you speak English very well for someone who didn't grow up it". I owe that to my mother. Growing up, she made sure that my sisters and I spoke and understood English as much as possible, but it was the language spoken in the professional world. As a result, my sisters and I didn't have much trouble trying to express ourselves to Americans when we got here. What was tricky is trying to make ends meet, to find the similarities between the way we were raised and the way American children are raised. Pop culture became the defining bonding moment for me and the first group of people I ever made friends with. I quickly learned Billboard's Top 100 and read Seventeen magazine cover to cover just so I could stop awkwardly standing there when people talked about how Zac Efron and Vanessa Hudgens were just destined to get married and be together forever.
My grandparents instilled a strong work ethic onto my parents which eventually carried on to my sisters and I. During the early years of my family living in the United States, my older sister was working on her master's degree at a university in the Philippines, forcing her to travel back and forth between countries. Being the first child to attend a college in the United States posed as one of the most difficult, yet most rewarding roadblock that my family has ever come across. We didn't know what to expect, especially when it came to finding ways to pay for it. Though I made sure that I was in tip-top shape to appear as a good candidate for the more competitive universities, the concept of attending one of them was still very foreign to my parents and I. As a result, I spent my first two years of college at a community college (which is a decision that I DO NOT regret). Coming to this decision was incredibly disheartening at first because I strongly believed that I was deserving of attending a prestigious university. It was an experience that has certainly changed my opinions of community colleges and university life in general. Not only did it force me to stay on top of my academic and athletic game, but it also taught me an important character building concept: the idea of pushing against the current.
Life is full of experiences that will knock you down. For me, it was leaving the life I knew and loved for the land of the free. I'm not going to lie, it was hard learning the ropes of a different country. But, if there's anything that I have learned from moving to the United States, it's perseverance. My teenage years were filled with trials and errors, situations that my parents and I have learned from and will hopefully avoid with my younger sister. It's these experiences, whatever outcome it may produce, that help mold who a person is.
