Letter To Sir Lao
Dear Sir,
This is Adrian, your student last semester in Advanced Screenwriting. It looks like I'll be staying here in Chicago for longer than expected. I hope to be back by August or September. So far, during my stay here, though, i have had quite a number of epiphanies about America, and Immigration, and being a Pinoy here.
Conditions here are definitely different. I am working here at a multinational company in order to save up for my thesis. I am glad that I am gathering so many experiences and life lessons here, as well as possible material for my script, but I am also sad.
Living here, being a first-generation Filipino immigrant, is so complicated. On one hand, you miss your country a lot. You miss the warm climate. You miss your friends. On the other hand, you think that our country has no hope, and there's no other way than to jump ship. Many old-timers keep talking to me whenever I attend a filipino event (and there are a lot). Once they found out that you just came from the islands, they immediately want an update on current events in the Philippines. But in the end, the conversation will almost always wind up about how hopeless the Philippines is. They are happy in the financial stability they have here (even if there are rumors of a potential economic downfall). But when it comes to retirement, they want to go back home. it's not just because they miss it so much, it's also because senior citizens here aren't treated well. Even with social security, children tend to leave their parents in nursing homes, away from your family. I understand that too because I have a lola here. She has no savings and her debts are piling up, so she's stuck here. She can't even afford her own trip back home, where she can be treated better.
Second-generation Filipino Americans are more or less acclimatized. They recognize themselves as Americans, but with Filipino heritage. Most of them are unable to speak Filipino. My supervisor where I work right now speaks a fractured kind of Filipino. They are not to blame; parents usually refrain from teaching their children Filipino because 1) "Hindi naman sila babalik dun e, so there's no use learning it!" and 2) "malilito lang ang bata pag dalawang languages ang sinasalita".
I just wanted to share this even if it bears no relation to my actual script. By the way, sir, I have revised the structure slightly. It is now just mainly one narrative line, with three settings: Manila (past), The Embassy (present), The States (future). The story will be leaping back and forth from past, to present, to future and back again. During the interview with the consular officer, the character will have an official response/statement. Then we will jump to the past to contextualize the answer, and to the future, to see if the answer given in the embassy is still applicable given this new scenario. But overall, the actual timespan is a matter of days, with the past being actually just a few days before the interview, while she is preparing for the interview. the present being the interview itself, and the future being about a week after the interview, after she has arrived in the states.
i will give you a more detailed plotline in the next email. This is it for now. Thank you very much sir.