You know that feeling you get when you peek out the airplane window and peer through the clouds to get a glimpse of the skyline of city you’re about to descend on? Everything’s so tiny and it’s hard to make much out beyond large stretches of concrete or green- but it’s exciting. Then there’s that feeling you get as the sliding doors open shut and the woosh of hot/ cold air comes at ya, the honks of the cars and excited chatter as incoming and outgoing traffic come and go. You’ve landed in locality. You’re here in an everyday chaos. And then there’s that feeling ya get when you’re back in a city that you’ve frequented once or twice before. This is a distinct feeling.You have all these memories in this place you’ve been before, maybe you’re back with the same people you’ve had these memories you’ve made- maybe you aren’t. Either way, the feeling is elusive as the memories wash over you. Nostalgic. Excited. Either way, you’re feeling some kind of way.
That’s Manila, Taipei, Shanghai, Montreal, Toronto, Ottawa, Portland, Seattle, LA, San Francisco, Singapore, KL, Hong Kong…
Made last minute moves to fly outta of here for the week and spend time in Hong Kong in time for Guakong’s 85th birthday. The last little while has been more chaotic and tiring and yes, stressful than I’d like to admit. I spent longer than I should have deliberating about taking off for just a week to see my grandparents and family who live in Manila.
As I sat at my computer, the irony finally hit me. I had been designing some work around the theme of choices. Action and inaction govern our lives so much. Our lives are like adventure tales where the red or blue pill dictate the outcome, the next step, the next door that holds more doors, more choice. Then there’s the classic divide between what we want vs what we should do: the right things vs the smart thing. So much talk about choice! So I choose my life beyond just work over just work. I choose this for this week, and I want to commit to consistently making this choice (Ok, granted I just spent the last 4 hours doing more work on the plane because the entertainment system is down and I can’t for the life of me completely closet my workaholic tendencies!).
Looking forward to enjoying this choice. It’s Guakong’s 85th birthday coming up, and him being one of my favourite people in the world and also one of the people I rarely get to see, I can’t wait to see his expression when he realizes that I’ve crossed the international dateline and somehow ended up in front of him!
Happy holidays! Make some fun choices!
d
Dominique Bautista 