THE THOUSANDS OF ISLANDS

AldrinBadiola Grade9

BaltimorePolytechnicInstitute

Sweat drips from my furrowed brows onto the lenses of my glasses. I’d woken up– not in my bedroom, but in front of a house I was quick to recognize, yet not know whose it was. But I knew exactly where I was.

I never thought it would be possible. I was back to a home that I have never known. To a world I have never explored; to lands uncharted by the map that my parietal lobe has in its grasp. I had made it to the Philippines.

Who knew that even in dreams I could be chased by my own lack of experience in existence? In existing in a world where I am not welcome; a place where I feel so distant from people I should love; should want to love, because of the divisions of language and culture? I am a Filipino person; I simply just live in the United States. But I am as American as Asian immigrants get.

The house I was in front of flew the flag of the Philippines on a pole beside its entrance door. That wonderful flag terrorizes me everywhere I go; I show it off with pride, yet its loud whispers interrupt any sense of connection to who I could have been to who I actually am. All I can hear when I wear that flag is the taunts of Filipinos that are older than me about how I can’t speak Tagalog.

I had awoken in my bed, a reinvigorated passion to eat more Filipino food, learn Tagalog, or even travel to the Philippines for the first time since I left on an airplane as a one-year-old. But I was not aspiring to achieve those things because I wanted to reconnect to the roots I could’ve had or to prove myself to anyone. The thousands of islands I might never know in this life will never welcome me as I wish it would.

Not A Good Idea

byAnonymous

When I Get to be Famous and Successful

I don’t know if I can tell people what I’ve been through

Of course I don’t think Baltimore is a bad city... There’s just bad people

There’s misunderstood people

We’re a misunderstood city

I’m not going to act like there has been successful artistry around here

I mean there’s CHARM, there’s authors like D Watkins, there were people like Tupac, who were all successful and are probably one of the best artist

There’s seriously beautiful murals and paintings on the side of the road

There’s some personality to it, but I hate when the news ignore it

Of course despite the diversity, we’re misunderstood and all people care about us is violence

So much gun violence going on so when someone talks about it in an artistic form, they’re getting in trouble while we allow guns and that stuff to roam free

We blame the children and imposes curfew when higher ups behind the scenes won’t give us budget on our education just cause

No one could understand who’s good and who’s bad, and of course that will affect a good Police aren’t trained to do anything and we put stricter laws on the innocent when there’s much more danger going on in the world

We’re not dangerous, the police and higher ups are

People worry about drugs and drug dealers and put them next to murderers and rapists

For every fun event, there’s tragedy.

We all love music and parties and art, and this is the best city to do so

It’s just .... The more stricter things are, the harder it is to express myself

Of course I love the city, but even celebrities here had to move on

When I get to be successful I could encourage people to be in the city, but when the police interrogate you.... Leave you don’t want to remember that part