Back in Hong Kong. Back to schoolwork, back to responsibilities, back to being grown up. Groan… and it does not help that the USA trip was a blast.

Oh well. I am thankful for my parents for, erm, financing the entire thing - I wouldn’t have gone anywhere if not for them. But I am most grateful to them for the experience. I did learn lots of things which would be potentially useful in evaluating my long term plans. And by future plans, it implies, what do I want to do when I grow up?

But not only that - it also brings up the age old existential questions: What is the meaning of my life? What does it take for me to be happy? My brother just migrated to Cincinnati (we helped him set things up), and I bore witness to The American Dream being fulfilled in a span of two days - all the luxuries one could need, materialized in one fell swoop! My brother had it made merely by the fact that he snagged a good job in the US (and I am proud of him!). Amazing country, that.

I’d love to have that kind of success - but I’d like other things too, such as being with my close friends, working with them on things where we share common passions in (music, film, etc.). Unfortunately, they are all back in Manila, and no amount of money could make me move them in one Playboy Mansion-esque community. And there are the things in the middle… it’s a mad juggle between companionship and prosperity. Can’t have one entirely without sacrificing the other.

Happiness is such a compromise, you know?