A year ago today I was an emotional wreck.
We were still living in Kalispell, Montana and I was a stay-at-home mother taking care of two-year-old twins and a seven-month-old baby. I was still breastfeeding Jeff Junior and was on my last semester as a graduate student under the language and literacy education program of the University of the Philippines Open University.
I talk about that moment in my life like it happened a long time ago. Sometimes, it feels like it never happened or that it was a chapter from a fiction book that I read during those times when sleep failed to imprison my consciousness.
People told me to get out of the house.
I did that.
Only that when you’re a mother of three children and working on a graduate degree, 24 hours in a day is too short a time to get things done. I am not making any excuses here . Trust me. In between cleaning the kitchen, washing and folding clothes, administering baths and changing of clothes, changing diapers, breastfeeding, homeschooling and what-nots, there is very little time left for “me” time.
I would be done at 11:00 p.m., after JJ takes his late night meal, and I would be left to decide between two options: sleep or read a book (oh… or take a shower!).
These days I come home at 11:00 p.m. from a long day of work and the children would be asleep. Jeff, who sleeps as early as 8:00 p.m., would occasionally be awake to wait for me. But most of the time, he too would be in deep slumber.
Sundays are holy days because we make an effort to cook up a feast.
Tonight (writing at 10:00 p.m. of the 2nd of April), we made three slabs of back ribs, pan-roasted cherry tomatoes (courtesy of entrepreneur Nellie Chiu) mixed with red onions, steamed kangkong harvested from our small green patch by the front yard, and made mashed potatoes from scratch.
Weekdays are mean days full of field works, writing and more writing. The last two weeks have been a frantic adventure of completing one magazine project after another.
Then there are fieldworks and meetings… I’ve been de-stressing with great cups of caramel latte by made by the good people of PhiloSophia Library Café in Mandaue City and sharing meals with wonderful people like the University of San Carlos press manager Dr. Jose Eleazar “Jobers” Bersales, Phialo Trading Corporation’s business unit manager Kingsley Benedict Medalla, and ClintKAMMS Corporation founder and ultimate goddess Caroline “Cayoy” Porras. ClintKAMMS is the printer of USC books while Phialo is the official distributor of these books.
At times, I question myself why I came back to the Philippines when it means going back to the daily work grind (because I can’t be in the Philippines and NOT work). I’ve been asked by Filipinos I met in the US why I chose to come home when I already have a green card. I have learned to give the generic answer: “The battle is here so I am here.”
There have been plans to move again – and God knows I would go wherever Jeff would go. But for now…it’s Asia, it’s the Philippines. And while I’m here, I’m going to make the most of my existence and presence in Cebu.
So don’t be surprised why I’m everywhere.
