For most of my life, Manila was my home. I had lived there for the first 17 years of my life. Now I live in Vancouver, and I’ve been here for almost four years now. Home is wherever my house is, whether it’s the condo where I used to live with my parents or this apartment in Richmond, BC.
Home is waking up at 6 in the morning to rice, eggs, and corned beef for breakfast with my little brother and sister, and the ride to school with them, withstanding the Manila morning traffic together. It’s laughing with my friends at lunch, before, after, and even in class, about jokes that will last a lifetime. It is coach screaming when we messed up the same drill for the third straight time. Home is barely getting home for dinner from basketball practice, every day after class, exhausted from the day and in need of a hot shower. It was readings and math problems and essays, even after dinner and a shower.
The last time I was actually based in Manila, I was just coming out of high school, so my last memories of “living at home” is that high school grind. But Manila is so much more than that. It is waking up on Saturday mornings to watch Kobe, LeBron, and other greats duel against each other on the basketball court. And then going down to the court with my little brother to practice the exact moves we just watched, tens of times over. It’s those Saturday family dinners and then video games or a movie with the siblings and sometimes the parents too!
Home is golf with grandpa on any day of the week in the summer. It’s playing basketball with my brother and my friends all together. Home is the smell of salt in the air, the vibrant glow of the sunset on the water, and the sand under my feet. It’s the delicious Chinese food, often in excessive portions, every time it’s somebody’s birthday. Home is quality time and comfortable silences with family, endless laughs and beer pong with friends. It’s watching Kobe Bryant highlights late into the night with my brother.
As (not really) an aside, I want to pay my respects to Kobe Bryant. Watching Kobe play, and initially rooting against him, together with my dad, brother, and friends was such a big part of my childhood. For me personally, there was triumph in 2008, when my Celtics beat his Lakers, and heartbreak the following two seasons as he led the Lakers to 2 straight NBA championships. Over time, though, I learned to just appreciate greatness. And so there were tears cried by me and my friends as we watched Kobe punctuate his near-perfect career with a 60-point performance in his final NBA game. It was truly a blessing to witness such greatness on and off the floor, from Kobe the basketball player and Kobe the human being. I learned so much from Kobe, not just about basketball, but how to approach life with that mamba mentality, to put in the necessary work every single day in order to excel at your craft, and then some more. His death saddens me greatly and this is truly a loss for all of humanity. May Kobe Bryant, his daughter Gigi, and the 7 others killed in the tragic helicopter crash this past Sunday forever rest in peace.
Of course, over the last four years, Vancouver has become my second home. While my immediate family and most of my old friends are not here with me, I am thankful for the people I have here who have grown to become my family. My cousins who I have known since I was young and visiting Vancouver for the first time. We went from playing in the snow as kids on Grouse Mountain to driving around Richmond late at night with the windows down and the speakers loud while sipping on bubble tea and munching on McDonald’s. My closest friends here now are those with whom I went to high school, never really hung out or were in the same friend group as, but connected via our common roots when we all came to Vancouver for university. Home is also going snowboarding with the boys and my partner in the winter. It is that and staying at home all day with her on a snow day.
Home can be but does not have to be restricted to one physical location, building, or apartment unit. There is a common saying: “home is where the heart is.” Home is doing the things we enjoy in the places we frequent with the people we love the most. It is that and it is also each of those three parts on their own. It is all of the things, people, places, and memories of combinations of these things that make us who we are. Home is everything and everyone we hold in our hearts.
RIP Kobe Bryant, Gianna Bryant, John Altobelli, Keri Altobelli, Alyssa Altobelli, Christina Mauser, Sarah Chester, Payton Chester, Ara Zobayan
Works Cited
Davis, Scott. “11 of Kobe Bryant’s Most Inspirational Quotes.” Business Insider, 26 Jan. 2020, https://www.businessinsider.com/kobe-bryants-most-inspirational-quotes-2020-1. Accessed 28 January 2020.
Simon, Darran. “NTSB Details the Final Moments of the Helicopter Before it Crashed, Killing Kobe Bryant and 8 Others.” CNN, 28 Jan. 2020, https://www.cnn.com/2020/01/27/us/calabasas-helicopter-crash-kobe-bryant-monday/index.html. Accessed 28 January 2020.
Ting, Jasmine. “Everything You Need to Know About Filipino Breakfasts.” Saveur, 16 Apr. 2018, https://www.saveur.com/filipino-breakfast-foods-silog-tsokolate-philippines/. Accessed 28 January 2020.
Hi Chino!
I really enjoyed reading this piece. I feel like I know you better already! It was wonderful to have a taste (no pun intended) of your favourite memories of home in Manila as well as Vancouver. I think it’s wonderful how both places can carry a sense of home with them because they both house experiences you cherish and people your love. I feel similarly about home; it’s not a place, per se, but more of a feeling that is drawn from your community and the things you choose to fill your days with.
Do you personally feel equally at home in Vancouver as you do in Manila, or do you think the place where you are born will always feel more like home than any other place?
Hi Georgia, thank you for reading my story about home!
I’m glad to hear that you share a similar concept of home. It truly is about the memories we make and how we spend our limited time on Earth. Your story was beautifully written and so vividly painted the scenes of your home, by the way; it was a wonderful read.
I would say that I feel equally at home in Vancouver and Manila, but perhaps I would have answered differently a couple years ago. I have been living in Vancouver for three going on four years now and I definitely feel like I have created a life that I enjoy living here in Vancouver. Of course, it is tough to be away from my parents, siblings, cousins, and childhood friends and homesickness cannot be avoided. The key, I think, is to make the most of every day in your second home to live a life you love, and appreciating the memories you made back home way back when, instead of sulking when recalling these memories.