He was 17 when he came to the USA as a tourist. His mom told him they’re going on a vacation in the US. Little did he know that his mom had other plans.–not to go back to the Philippines.
That was 13 years ago. He’s now 30 and to this day, he still could not understand what the hell they’re doing here in New York, struggling, with no bright future in sight. He asks himself every single day, why they’re in this situation.
His mother is a lawyer in the Philippines and yet, she is a baby sitter here. His younger sister also works as a baby sitter.
He never understood why they left their comfortable life in Manila to become illegal aliens in the US. His mom never explained to him. He just had a slight idea that she was running away from his dad for reasons unclear to him.
They currently live in a two bedroom apartment in Queens. One room is occupied by a Filipino family of 5, while he, his sister, and mother stay in the other room for $500 a month.
Believing that a college degree could placate him and his family from this decade-long misery, he worked as waiter/bartender , while studying at the Harvard Extension School. His Harvard diploma has so far done nothing to find him a job that would legalize his stay in the US. But while it’s not yet happening, he’s still working as waiter/bartender with a Harvard diploma in his pocket.
(I sincerely wish he finds a stable job and a way to legalize his stay in the US. All the best to him, his mom, and his sister.)
