Change.

You do notice it more acutely after you’ve been away for some time. The images of the people and the places that you see are no longer true representations of the ones you’ve held in your memory.

That’s what it feels like whenever I come back home to Cebu. In a lot of ways, the city has grown older. A lot more tired and weary. The latest real estate developments like fresh sores on her back. Her roads suffering from a severe case of osteoporosis.

But that’s not to say I don’t love this city. Because I do. Just as I love the people and the language and how they both inspire and crack me up at the same time.

Everything is so familiar, and yet so different at the same time.