Where Is Home?

I grew up in Bulacan. Not in one specific place, but in several towns. When I was born we were living in Meycauayan (but technically I was born in Sta. Maria), but we also lived in Bocaue, Balagtas and more recently, in San Jose del Monte. We also lived for a short time in Malanday, which is in the outskirts of Manila.

When I was pregnant with Svet Paulie and I also rented a room in Cubao. I’ve gone to eight schools before I finally graduated from college. Yes, we were pretty much all over the place. We didn’t have our own house, and we moved constantly depending on where our circumstances take us.

Packing for a move is no fun (but on the bright side we get to sift through our things and throw out all the unnecessary stuff accumulated over the years), and we’re not really the type of people who look forward to a move because we’ll be meeting new people/neighbors (we pretty much keep to ourselves), so it’s really a wonder why we never manage to stay put.

In June 2008, we decided to move to Baguio, and we lived there for five years. Even there we changed houses four times. But, as much as we love the city, we needed to move again. I found a house we can call our own in Bulacan (this time in Guiguinto). I’m still paying for the equity before we can move in, so while waiting we’re renting a house here in Caloocan. It’s a good thing I can work from anywhere, no? Otherwise we would not be able to move about as freely as we do.

We now have Svet, and I want to give her stability, thus my decision to start paying for our own house in Guiguinto. But I know in my heart that I want to go back to Baguio. It’s where we felt most at home, closest to nature. It’s the city that taught me to care for the environment. The place that never failed to amaze us with its beauty, even after five years of seeing it everyday. And with that realization, I just know we’d finally found home.

Maybe when Svet is in college (or I’m fiercely hoping, earlier), we’d enroll here in a school there so we can finally get back to our favorite city once and for all. Some people’s ultimate dream is to be famous, or to be stinking rich. My family’s dream is to go back to Baguio, a place we may not have originated from, but it’s a place we’ve learned to love and call home.