After spending most of the weekend speaking to friends who live in both the mainland US and in the UK, I've come to two conclusions.
First, tickets to Guam from anywhere else in the world are ridiculously over-priced. That doesn't just work one way though! Being one who would aboslutely love see the world, I have had my eye on ticket prices for the past year or so. It's kind of nuts! It's like... we entice the rest of the world to come here and then BAM! You're stuck! Sorry... No 'Get Out Of Jail Free' cards. Those are reserved for the gov't officials that mess up ;)
Second, I live in what 99% of the world thinks of as paradise. I joke that the other 1% actually lives here. You see, being raised here on Guam, we have the mentality that we are stuck on 'the rock'. We hit a dead end in education and in the professional world. So, what you have are star struck, money hungry teenagers who see no future on 'the rock'. That being said, we choose to leave. To go where the lights shine bright. Where you can drive for days and still not see the ocean. Where you can party and no one will know who you are and word won't get to your family about how wild you are being.
But, you see, we always end up coming back home. Because, to a Chamorro... to someone born and raised in the culture... Guam will always be home. It will always be that place that we can come to and drive five long minutes to the nearest beach. Where we can go to the store at any time of the day in our pj's and run in to someone we know and it will be perfectly normal. It will always be that place where we can drive to Chotde's in the middle of the morning and get a nice warm spicey(and I'm not talkin' American spicey) empanada. It will always be the place where family is family. Where you are not kicked out of the house at 18 and expected to know exactly how to fend for yourself. In short... Guam will always be GUAM.
First, tickets to Guam from anywhere else in the world are ridiculously over-priced. That doesn't just work one way though! Being one who would aboslutely love see the world, I have had my eye on ticket prices for the past year or so. It's kind of nuts! It's like... we entice the rest of the world to come here and then BAM! You're stuck! Sorry... No 'Get Out Of Jail Free' cards. Those are reserved for the gov't officials that mess up ;)
Second, I live in what 99% of the world thinks of as paradise. I joke that the other 1% actually lives here. You see, being raised here on Guam, we have the mentality that we are stuck on 'the rock'. We hit a dead end in education and in the professional world. So, what you have are star struck, money hungry teenagers who see no future on 'the rock'. That being said, we choose to leave. To go where the lights shine bright. Where you can drive for days and still not see the ocean. Where you can party and no one will know who you are and word won't get to your family about how wild you are being.
But, you see, we always end up coming back home. Because, to a Chamorro... to someone born and raised in the culture... Guam will always be home. It will always be that place that we can come to and drive five long minutes to the nearest beach. Where we can go to the store at any time of the day in our pj's and run in to someone we know and it will be perfectly normal. It will always be that place where we can drive to Chotde's in the middle of the morning and get a nice warm spicey(and I'm not talkin' American spicey) empanada. It will always be the place where family is family. Where you are not kicked out of the house at 18 and expected to know exactly how to fend for yourself. In short... Guam will always be GUAM.
I never understood how truly tied I was to this island. But, having been back home for a year and a half, I have come to realise... You know that saying we have here? 'You can take the girl/boy from the island, but you can't take the island from the girl/boy.' That saying is absolutely true. Because, no matter how far we run from the island, this 'rock', as we so loathfully called it as adolescents, it is still our comfort zone. This lovely island paradise will always be our roots and we should always be proud of where we came from and what our people represent. When we feel stuck on this 'rock', always remember that there are billions of people who'd rather be here.
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