12/12/2025
Every time I walk around the Philippines, I can’t help noticing how people take for granted the little things that actually make this place special. It’s funny how the world sometimes sees our quirks as flaws, when for me, those are exactly what make this country feel alive. Beyond all the politics and the stressful parts recently, the Philippines is honestly beautiful in its own organized messy, colorful way. Everywhere I look, there is something that is handmade yourself covers (tarpaulins, yero, scraps, woods) people make out of whatever materials they can find, the panindas arranged in the most random yet eye catching bursts of color, the houses with questionable paints in shades that shouldn’t work together but somehow do, and most of the time it’s simply the people themselves who radiate warmth without even trying.
And I don’t know… despite the imperfections, or maybe because of warm feeling of interacting with, I can’t help feeling proud that I grew up here. There’s something comforting about it. It’s not perfect, it’s not polished, but it’s real. It’s my home.
No matter what anyone says, the Philippines has this rare kind of character that most people don’t notice at first glance. But when you really stop and look, I mean really look, you realize that the things others call “flaws” are actually the details that make this place unforgettable, warm, chaotic and undeniably ours.
