Out of the Barrio, Into the World from Illustrado
To Juan and Maria,
You’re not in the barrio anymore.
Welcome to the world.
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| Photo credit: New Line Cinema (Screen Shot 2015-01-29 at 10.58.28 AM) |
A whirlwind swept you off your lovely days in the village and plonked
you here in the middle of the bizarre landscape that is the life of the
struggling expatriate. Yours was a life of comfort and predictability
in the barrio, but this gnarly province offers no such niceties. You are Frodo from the Shire and this, little sweetling, is Mordor. You
will have to shed some of your innocence here, lest you be mistaken as a
half-wit and thrown into the pit to be devoured alive by hungry orcs.
You are in the land of giants, where everyone walks straighter and
taller than you. Brace thyself, lest you be trampled underfoot.
Now mind you, it’s not all fire and brimstone. You did not come here as lamb waddles to the slaughter. You are here to push yourself beyond your limits, to test the mettle of your fortitude and find the immensity that eluded you in your days as just another wily character in your barangay. Greatness awaits, but to get to it you will have to endure a thousand pains and pass through a gauntlet of immense toil and turmoil. You will rise to greater heights, but first, you will be humbled. In your limited and insular vision, you may have thought of yourself a king in your homestead, but here you will have to play the pauper, the court jester, the warrior, or the general. You will have to rebuild your nobility from the ground up, because no one is likely to just hand you your crown.
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