The Story Behind the Story: “Zoo”
A behind-the-scenes look at how this short fiction came to life.
Zoo is available to read at Writers Resist, first published in March 2024.
Zoo was inspired by and born out of the culmination of real-life experiences I’ve heard from friends and colleagues, immigration horror stories I’ve read online, and my personal sentiments with regard to immigration in America.
When you’ve lived in a developing country for most of your life, it’s not unusual to dream of greener pastures, to desire to move one’s life to a first-world country like the United States.
As a full-blooded Filipino that grew up in a highly Westernized culture in the Philippines, I’ve been inculcated with the American dream for as long as I can remember. So, when I got accepted at Cornell University to pursue my MBA in 2016, I thought this was it — my one-way ticket to a better life in the US.
But things don’t always pan out as expected.
After I graduated from Cornell in 2018, I, an international student then, had a challenging time finding a job in the Trump era. As a realist and pragmatist, I knew that I wasn’t going to magically secure a job in this country anytime soon when I’ve had zero warm leads when it came to job prospects during my second year at grad school, despite networking relentlessly and sending out my resume to multiple job openings. So I bit the bullet and decided to return to the Philippines — with a six-figure US dollar student debt joining me on the trip back home.
Fast forward to 2022, the company I’ve been working for agreed to transfer me from their Manila office to their headquarters in California. When my work visa got approved, I packed my bags and moved my life to America once again a month after. I’ve worked too hard to get a second chance at life in the US, so this time, I was hell-bent on staying.
What most people don’t know, and what binds the international community in the US together, is the state of immigration in America.
Unless you are a foreigner in the US, you don’t know the fear and anxiety that overwhelm us when we set foot at immigration and border control any time we (re)enter the US, even if we possess a valid visa and are legal residents. You don’t know the piles of paperwork that we prepare and log around with us as evidence of our status, just in case the powers that be demand to see them. You don’t know the restrictions to which we can choose our way of life and pursue our passions in this country.
In many ways, I feel like a caged animal in a zoo that most people are dying to go to. You are being watched, you are required to comply with ridiculous sets of rules, you operate under several constraints, yet you should be grateful, because darling, you are in the greatest country on Earth.
I know what you’re thinking. “If you detest your situation, why do you stay? Why don’t you just return home?” Despite the challenges and frustrations, I stay because living in the US gives me a shot at a better life compared to the alternative of returning to my home country in the Philippines.
These are the main conundrums underscoring the story of Zoo. How do we reconcile the trauma of immigration with the genuine desire to live a better life in this country? How do we continue practicing gratitude when it feels like our hands and feet are shackled? How do we live up to the “land of the free, home of the brave” when freedom is relative?
Maybe we ought to focus on “home of the brave” instead. Because despite the fears of repeated immigration trauma, we face them head-on anyway.
Thank you to Writers Resist for accepting this flash fiction piece for their special “Amplified Voices” issue. Zoo truly couldn’t have found a more appropriate home than this publication.
So, Long Story Short (SLSS) is a Medium publication where I pull back the curtain on my original works of short fiction that have been published in literary magazines and journals.
I write about the why and the how, and I aim to post my thoughts within two weeks from the story’s first publication, while the story is still fresh on my mind.
By doing so, I hope to have written artifacts beyond the stories themselves and be reminded of my motivations, inspirations, and evolving writing process, as well as the state of the external world and my inner life in that moment in time.
Thanks for following along.
For more short fiction writing, consider subscribing to my Substack newsletter of the same name, So, Long Story Short.
I write drabbles and offer a behind-the-scenes look at my original works of short fiction published in literary magazines and journals.
