What it feels like living in my place
If you’ve been to Manila, you might have heard of the province called Cavite. It’s an hour or less ride to the south, and most people don’t even call it a province since it’s quite established and developed.
Many city workers are buying houses in my place because it’s cheaper and it still has a feeling of provincial life.
I live in a town called Tanza.
It’s quite huge compared to other towns.
My father grew up in this place. When he married my mother, they got a small land from his brother-in-law. My parents furnished our house slowly because of lack of money.
I still remember we only have one toilet when I was a kid. Then after 15 years, we got three decent ones.
Contradictory, I didn’t grow up where I live now.
I grew up in the city.
When I decided to move here in September last year, it took me some time to adjust. Even though we have a house here, we never really stayed because of several reasons — jobs are mostly in the city, my mother’s hometown is quite opposite to where it is, life here is different from what we’ve grown up with, etc.
But after some time, the place feels like home.
There are things that I pretty much enjoy, like my little corner in the house where I can see our backyard with my cousin’s ducks & a not-so-huge green field where teenagers used to play, sing & dance. And my room which I designed for sleeping and working.
There is also a beach nearby where I can swim whenever I want to. It’s so accessible that you can reach it in 5 minutes with bicycle.
The feeling of province life is still here.
You can hear people singing Karaoke every weekend — like now I can hear them while I’m writing. You can hear people playing Bingo in the morning. And people yell outside not because they are angry, but because it’s just the way they live.
So if I describe what it feels like to live here? It’s peacefully chaotic with a mixture of the reality of how people live in my country.
After all, it’s a half province, half city.
So I think it’s a good mixture of a peacefully-chaotic life.
