Age has made me a more fully realized version of myself – I didn’t recognize that until returning to the Philippines
Last month, it was my paternal grandmother’s 105th birthday. It’s unlikely that we’ll have many more chances to visit her, so my husband, daughters and I visited the Philippines to celebrate – my first trip since February 2020.
Despite being born in the US and having lived here since, I still consider the Philippines home. I’ve made the journey at least a dozen times, and it always feels like I’m visiting another version of me only accessible in these islands. This iteration of me is always surrounded by babies and cousins, eats all the green and yellow mangoes she wants and understands more of her native language with each passing day. I am overjoyed to be there, filled with so much emotion that it leaks out of my eyeballs constantly.
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