And So This Is Christmas… An OFW Christmas

I am an OFW and Christmas will always be different if you are not in your native land. Although you experienced snow, one of the symbols of Christmas, it will never be the same as what you’ve grown and loved for most of your life: Paskong Pilipino!

I’m stuck in a snowy Midwest in North America as a Nurse and it will be my second Christmas without my family. It is a sacrifice that I have prepared for most of my entire Nursing carreer. I’ve experienced celebrating Christmas at work back home yet I still felt the warmth and spirit of of the Yuletide season, but here abroad, its never the same. It is not a joyous celebration and you’ll always be alone, sad and tend to sleep as early as possible so that you would not really feel lonely… or if you tend to celebrate in a bar or something, you sit in a lonely table just for one.

The more the season’s get near, the more lonesome you get. Besides the ever lonesome coldness of the air outside, is a struggle within yourself that Christmas is not the same as what you’ve used to. There would be no more gift exchanges and parties till the wee hours of the morning. No fireworks outside your window sparkling and lighting the depths of the night. No loud music playing on your neighbor’s homes and no sharing of food with your ever disliked neighbor (because Christmas is time of forgiveness).

During this time of the Holidays, sometimes you tend to be “Scrooged” up because you are a little bit depressed. You tend to dream that you’re with your family. You may receive a phonecall from loved ones backhome, but it does not settle the score. You may feel a little uplifted, but after you hang up, you’re once again “Scrooged”

I tend to dislike Christmas earlier, because it tends to give a depression that I couldn’t control. Missing your entire family that you could kiss and hug at the stroke of midnight, your friends that would simply text a message saying “Merry Christmas” and the noise of Christmas in the Philippines.

And so this is Christmas… my Christmas of longingness and sacrifice, an OFW Christmas. I hope that the following year, I could spend a normal Yuletide season for I’ll never make loneliness a normal Christmas.

 Merry Christmas to All and a Peaceful New Year.

{I wish this would be a little bit longer but I ran out of ideas because I am writing this the way I had it in mind –grayscale}