HOMETOWN

Let me tell you about a place I know where mornings aren’t bustling crowds and honking
and fingers tapping on steering wheels, waiting for stoplights to turn green.

Let me tell you about a place where mornings are echoes of your neighbors sweeping their front lawn, roosters crowing as the sun rises, your grandmother cooking breakfast in the kitchen
while sunlight streams in from the windows. Let me tell you about a time where
everything was much simpler.

 Let me tell you about the first Christmas morning I remember.

Memories of waking up to a ceiling adorned with glow in the dark stars. Memories of my mom getting me my first bicycle– it was orange and had blue handles­– it screamed “Finding Nemo”
and I loved it. A couple of days later, some of my taller relatives tried to ride my bike but
ended up breaking the training wheels. Let me tell you about a time where
broken training wheels were among my biggest problems. 

Let me tell you about preschool. 

I remember catching dragonflies in the playground until some mean kid started teasing my lanky friend over a piece of gum. I was furious– I mean, as furious as a five-year-old could get–
 and told them to bug off, shoving a dragonfly down their shirt. Let me tell you about
the first time I stood up to other people. 

Let me tell you about my first scar. 

It was on my right knee, I had tripped after an attempt at getting through my cousin at a
game of patintero. I cried for about half an hour, and cried even harder when my
nanny tried to put alcohol on my wounds. Let me tell you about the time I realized
kisses can’t heal everything– that recovery can be painful. 

Let me tell you about cousins. 

They were my second cousins and they were the siblings I never had. I remember warm afternoons, launching plastic straws with cigarette butts embedded in one end into the sky, competitions on who can go higher. I remember puppet shows under blanket forts and sitting on the back of my grandfather’s pickup truck, watching the sunset as we sip on soda in plastic bags. A couple 

of years later, I wake up and find out they’ve been murdered. Let me tell you about the 

time death was no longer a foreign concept. When I figured that it's much like fault line– 

we're not always aware of it, but it's there, waiting for the perfect moment to 

strike and leave destruction in its wake. 

Let me tell you about when I moved to the city, in all its concrete jungle glory.

Being a probinsya girl, I assumed everyone spoke English in the city. I remember reading the dictionary in a closet in our small apartment, using new vocabulary words whenever I speak to my mom. I remember the surprise I felt when I went to school and heard some kid yell, “Ano ba!” 

Let me tell you about the time I couldn’t wish for anything more than to wake up and 

find myself staring at the ceiling adorned with glow in the dark stars. 

Let me tell you about the city– where mornings are bustling crowds and honking
and fingers tapping on steering wheels, waiting for stoplights to turn green.

I am a probinsyana to my very core and not a day goes by where I don’t long for nice, quiet mornings with my grandmother in the kitchen, and playing patintero with my cousins until my mom
 comes to get me, and building blanket forts, and catching dragonflies. 

But soon, I grow. And I discover. I find heartwarming friendships and breathtaking skylines and quaint coffee shops and art shows and museums. Let me tell you about the time I realized that
the real world is much, much bigger than the one I’ve always known. 

Let me tell you about when I realized the city wasn’t so bad after all. 

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Hello! This is actually something I wrote for another prompt for club about two months back. The prompt was "Sentimental" and well, this was born. I'll be dumping my work in here because 1) My godfather told me to put my work out there, so like, okay. 2) I don't have to dig through my documents when people want to see stuff I make, haha! 

Bits of this is fiction while some are based on real things (No, I never shoved a dragonfly in a schoolmate's shirt. And yes, I did think city folks spoke English all the time.) I'll just leave you to figure out the rest. If you're reading up to this point, bless you HAHA I hope you enjoyed your read!