Just a month ago I got myself a new simcard (availing one of my benefits as an employee of a telecom company!). I initially thought of the inconvenience of sending everyone a text message informing them of my new number. based on experience, not everyone gets to update their phonebooks either because they did not receive my text or they accidentally deleted my message.. sigh.. I would then be experiencing “who’s this” answers when I call or text from my new number. As I was browsing through my phonebook, I realized that I don’t have much people to send my new number. Most of the contacts in my phonebook already left the country and my means of communications with them now are through email. I then begun this memory game of identifying to which country that person went…. Cathy’s in Dubai, Alvin in New Zealand, Maya and Vanessa in Trinidad and Tobago, EJ in BVI, Hanzel in Gibraltar, Europe and Singapore (what the heck, he’s been everywhere!)… hmm.. my friends are scattered all over the globe! We can already have a United Nations pageant during our reunion wherein each can wear the national costume of the country their in right now! I don’t know whether to feel happy or gloomy about this current realization. I’m glad that each of my friends are pursuing their dream and taking on new challenges but i also felt like we were all living our lives now separately and literally apart from each other. Gone are the days when we can just call each other and hangout, have coffee or watch a movie. Or just have text marathons (international text messages are way expensive). Hmm. I think I’m getting sentimental. but it makes me wonder, is this overwhelming desire to work in a different country really common nowadays despite of nationality? Or is this a Filipino thing only? Are people more adventurous now that they are willing to live in a foreign land, interact with foreigners (but I think if you’re the one who’s now a citizen of the country you become the foreigner) and eat foreign delicacies? Or is it the need to uplift one’s life financially because “earnings in the Philippines are just not enough”? is it the Philippine economy? But then, the entire world is experiencing a crisis, even the United States, right? Is the thought of foreign employment really promising?? Once in a blue moon I think of the possibility of leaving the country as well. But then again when I think of every non-financial things that I get to enjoy here in my own country, I always scratch the thought. The comforts of being “home” outweighs the financial rewards of working abroad. but I don’t want to speak too soon. My son is growing, and who knows, someday my husband and I might let go of our “home” and comforts to migrate in a place where our son’s future will be most secure. Who knows?