3.27.2006

Thoughts on belonging

Last day at home. Is it still home? I'm not sure anymore. It's my last night and I'm sitting in the blistering hot contemplating the concept of belonging. I've always considered this home...but now, I dunno...
I feel it most when I'm out with my friends and everyone is speaking tagalog and what not. In those scenarios, I have two options: concentrate really hard so I can understand a majority of the conversation while forsaking the art of drinking heavily or drink heavily and forsake the art of conversation while saying "Ano?" (What?) "Hindi kita narinig." (I didn't hear you) every time someone tries to speak to me. Tagalog has never come naturally to me but it's so much harder now than it ever was. My closer friends know that it's difficult for me so they speak mostly in English with a bit of Tagalog sprinkled here and there for emphasis. But others...ehh...I'm just their retarded friend who can't speak pinoy.
It's not just the language too. It's also the culture. Even though I'm about the same age as most of my friends, I feel so much older. Maybe it's because my experiences have been so different from them but I feel this huge disparity when I talk to them.
Don't get me wrong, I love my family. I love visting them and seeing my cute as always but still overly demanding and loud baby cousin but I dunno...it doesn't feel like home anymore.
But...
Boston doesn't exactly feel like home either. So where does that leave me? I love Boston, I love the city and the overall atmosphere (despite the cold). I have enough friends to be satisfied but not too many to feel overwhelmed. Life is good. But I can't help but feel a little bit like an outsider. I guess it's because I'll always be a foreigner. Not just because of the way I look or the passport I carry or even the places I lived. Just because of how I am.
This probably doesn't make all that much sense to sane people. But I dunno...it's something I've been thinking about. Is belonging all that important? Or am I just over analyzing again? I can never be sure...

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