Planning or working abroad? Hear me first
The second book of the bible is upon us – Exodus! People are leaving the country for various reasons, foremost of which is to work and earn more. I am not about to join the band wagon though. You just need to watch the news every day to know why working abroad is really so not cool! There is a plethora of reasons why we should not go out there – it’s deadly! Well, that’s how I feel, and in the hope of convincing others of you out there who have plans of going abroad to just be contented with what you already have, here are my ten PERSONAL reasons for not wanting to go abroad.
1. I am perfectly satisfied with what I already have – sure I have debts, lots of it, and at times, I can barely manage my finances because I hate money! Hehe, galit sa pera kun si Marz pa, but I eat three times a day, I have decent clothes on me (not the signature ones, I don’t have a pet peeve for branded things, I’d rather go ukay-ukay), and I don’t have some ‘bombay’ running after me because of my utangs. I guess I have just simple joys, and I don’t dream going abroad, working my ass off to buy a condo unit, the hippest cell phone, or live like a king for a day – most overseas workers come home and spend until they drop, and when all is gone, they fly back to work their asses off again! Simply put – I get by, I am not rich, except for a few luxuries, but what else could I ask for? I am alive, and healthy and I can sleep anytime I want!
2. I don’t believe in giving up the intangible for the material – many OFWs leave behind their families, some of them even leave behind youngsters in their most critical ages. Many of you might contradict me, but I think youngsters who are left behind at a very young age grow up to have lesser emotional attachments to their absent parents. The fat pay check abroad is not worth the emotional turmoil a child has to go through watching his/her parent leave – kids do not understand this concept – mga parents, ma-awa naman kayo. When one day, you come back and you can’t control your kid anymore, it was all your fault – sure you gave him/her the luxuries he/she could not have had had you not left, but hey, what is more luxurious than coming home from school and finding that your dad/mom just cooked you a warm meal full of love and affection? No amount of explaining will make your kid understand why you had to leave, trust me, they do not ask for much, the best ! gift you could give to them is your being around to watch them grow.
3. I don’t want to be made into a human hamburger patty – just watch the news and you will know what I mean. If you don’t come home as a cold cadaver, then you would probably have cigarette burns on you genitals, bruises, or whatever else those discriminating employers might consider a means of disciplining their slave.
4. What I want, money can never buy – if you leave the country for money or for a better financial future, you might be being practical, but you are also being cold and emotionless. Even when money is running scarce when you are surrounded by people who love you, everything else just falls into place. Love is something money can never buy.
5. I am being unreasonable – I just think that it is pointless to leave behind a perfectly satisfactory life for luxuries that you might not even enjoy after you get a slew of diseases from overworking yourself.
6. I wanna enjoy life – the way to do it is not to go abroad to work, but to go abroad for leisure. Sure, you are in a different country, but you are there to work and not to enjoy, what’s the point? I just don’t get it!
7. I love my country – honestly, I do. It needs me (kapal!); well it does, and it needs each one of us. How brazen can you get, leaving behind a country that stuck it up for you when it needs you the most?
8. It doesn’t matter where you are if you are ‘tamad’ nothing will happen – you can live comfortably here if you just know how to. If you are too picky with jobs then you might as well just beg for alms, because everyone has to go through the wrungs of the corporate ladder, except when you are born with a silver spoon. Believe it or not, I even considered selling massagers and flashlights for a direct selling group once, where – Fort San Pedro! Oh, and Marz and I also sat through an orientation seminar where we would then be selling encyclopedias – we sat through for the free food ‘til the 3rd day, then we didn’t come back on the last, when we were to get the books we had to sell, hehehehe.
9. There is so much free food in grocery stores – do you know what free sampling is all about?
10. I can sit in a coffee shop for hours and not get charged for my time – out there, seconds are spelled this way ‘D – O - L – L – A – R – S’. Go on! Go out and become a green-eyed money monster!
Then again, these are my reasons, if you still want to leave – go! No one’s stopping you, just don’t say you were not warned or didn’t read the fine print.
Be rational; be insane…every once in a while! TTFN!
I love you all! Byers!