"Hi, we love you, sana matuloy na transfer mo the soonest para di mo na
mamiss yong boses ni mama mo at ipapagluto kita araw araw ng fried,
tinola, adobong chicken.
Good luck.
Papa, Mama n Kim"
Oh no, not mom's mega phonic voice again! For a while I felt homesick again.
I am due for transfer within the year (now verbally approved, but still, if God permits).
When Bryan came at the IBR office for his interview for a position in La Union two years ago I knew at that moment I can have my swaps with him, but I never expected it to be this fast.
Two years ago, though newly hired, I was at once too eager for home base. These were the days I saw office as a fiery furnace, where my room at Brgy. 4 was the only safest place I know amidst lurking office evils, where some of my very few accomplishments were not acknowledged but always questioned, where two or four or six eyes kept their piercing stares at my direction, if not on my work - as if anticipating any failure I can do for the day, where every tiny fault was seen as grave ones, where there was barely a day when my eyes were dry and having no one to turn these gloomy days to but myself, and where I always thought "If the prize of receiving a lot of dosh and prestige is degrading oneself, I'd rather be as poor and loathly as a rat". Later did the realization come that, as usual, these are fitting tests of life. This indeed is the real world, and if you survive, you're just as fitting. I still survive, but have become meaner. Still as fragile as china, but have become as strong as a rock.
If there is one thing I'd reason out to deny the transfer, it's because finally I taste the sweetness of independence - of having to pick up grocery stuff without pappy checking in my basket and returning pricey stuff on shelves, of having quiet days without hearing mum's deafening voice, of riding buses (biased for Partas though) alone and enjoying the panoramic views of Sur's coastlines at sunset, of merely appreciating life's simplicities. I was enjoying Ilocos, the serenity, the simple living, having no worries as to where my tears and sweat are spent. I was enjoying solitude - in a positive kind of way.
No matter how the wheels turn though, solitude has become as lonely as living alone in an island.
Since childhood, my LU home never had one whole week where all five of us were together. Only the weekends are lucky enough to complete us. Pappy was always destined as far as Isabela - anywhere where going home everyday was impossible. But as soon as he got Urdaneta last year (the nearest he can go to travel back and forth from home everyday), I and Kris were the ones destined further. That's why amongst us, pappy is the most eager for home base. I see how excited he is when one of us goes home every weekend and how he’s as sweet as he could to repay his and our absences.
The call for home base is a very tempting one. They say CBR's meaner and more challenging. Whatever. At least, when lightning strikes again, I'd have a stronger shield. I'll have my family.