More Effort to be Connected

I don’t think I truly realized how much I value my Filipino ancestry until I became a dad.

My kids’ connection to that ancestry isn’t going to come as easily. The generations above me are getting older. The number of people I get to see in the Philippines is getting smaller. Elders become ancestors. Their childhoods, like mine, are set in the United States, and their ties to people who grew up on the Islands are more limited.

I want them to have a strong connection to the culture. I know it took me most of my life to get to the point where I appreciate it the way I do now, but I want them to have that same chance.

That’s a tall task for me on my own.

Thankfully I’ve got 7,000 islands to help.

Here’s hoping that this is the first of a childhood full of stories about those trips to the Philippines we took, the people we met, and the things we learned about ourselves.