For the longest time, 'escaping the city' meant choosing to spend Thanksgiving, for once, in the suburbs and in a family home, hopping on the train to DC, catching the next bus to Philly, or flying to SF to chill the f out. It became routine and easy to flee when life got too overwhelming because no city ever became 'home' as much as Manila was for 18 formative years of my life.
So when I found myself needing to hop on a one-way flight to Manila for the first time in 5 years, I knew I was wrapping up a chapter in my life and saying goodbye, indefinitely, to friends, a lifestyle, and habits. They say it is never goodbye, but I believe it truly is. You are never the same person you were at a certain point in life, even if you go back to the same place or reconnect with the same person. Everything and everyone would have changed. This wasn't going to be a casual weekend getaway in which I could recalibrate and resume normality after. I would be starting anew. I dealt with this the best way I could and focused on packing and re-packing my life up until it was reduced to boxes and suitcases. And then I left.
Coming home to Manila was always an end-goal penciled in my life's plan, but I didn't expect it to happen as soon as it did. I wanted to assimilate to my new phase and expedite the processing to catch up with my departure date, but naturally, life does not work that way. Fortunately, life does work in such a way that as one door closes, another opens. The world was my oyster and I was blessed. All I had to get through was the transition phase, and I wanted to do it outside of Manila, outside of home.
It turns out, underwater was a powerful way to recharge and recenter. Coron, Palawan is an especially humbling beauty. Armed with my favorite human, a thirst for local adventure, and a 'new beginning' to commemorate, I spent 3 days away from the city to ready myself for the next stage in life - the new job, the renewed friendships, and the familiar albeit improved lifestyle, habits, and mindset of what it is like to be home.
10 tricycle trips, 8 island meals, 7 breathless landscapes and ocean floors, 6 banka rides, 5 bags of garlic cashews, 4 bottles of red horse extra strong, and a nasty life vest rash later, I had a pocketful of memories with M that would empower me until the next time we reunite. With that, I was back.
