Will an OFW Life Be Good For You?

I grew up in a family of OFWs. I used to have relatives in Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Saudi, US, etc, so you just have to pick which country you would like to go to. Then you can ask them to help you get a job there, either by legal or illegal means.

I never dreamt of becoming an OFW myself. Though I do not want to call myself an OFW, that is what I am. However, the term applies more to my father, who worked in Japan, far from his family for several years.

As I'm single when I came here and is technically not working for anyone but myself, I did not consider myself an OFW. I was treating myself more like an adventurer; I can go and work anywhere I want.

But now that I have my own family, I realized I am no longer as free as I used to be. If ever I go out again to another country, it will no longer be called an adventure. It will be called immigration.

I was in studying in UP when the movie Anak was shown. If there are people in Film Center who could relate much to that movie, I will be one of them. All of us in my family, including my cousins, understand what happens when one of the parents go and work abroad.

You will feel a set of mixed emotions. You want them to be here, but at the same time, you want them to earn money abroad.

My only observation from personal experience is that an OFW life is bad for growing children. You can never bring back the years when your daughter or son is becoming an adolescent. She or he will only pass childhood once.

Imagine leaving your daughter at the age of six. Then returning to her at the age of twelve. At this age, she is already at the brink of being a teenager. You can not buy her childhood back. And at this age, she will begin to discover herself. Leave her again and return to her when she is 18. Do you think she will still be the same as when you left her? By this time her personality has already developed. 

I am not blaming any parent for such situations. They feel the most pain actually. Not only for their kids. Consider your self the father who leaves his family in the example above. Where did your youth go? You and your wife wasted the best years of your life apart. Did you get that? Apart.

You spent the best years of your marriage apart from each other. You spent the best years of your growing daughter apart from her. You spent the best years of your own life apart from your loved ones.

So, in your case, will an OFW life be good for you?

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