The OFW "Selfies"

One day, a good friend of mine ask me for a favor, "Ate, I have an assignment in my English class, can you make a speech for me? What you think will be the topic?" then I looked to her deeply, this girl takes her pictures and everything all the time.. So I replied, put OFW SELFIES.. LOL!!! And so I taught, why don't I write also about this?

It is trending worldwide, taking your own pictures which the social media calls it as "SELFIE",even celebrities make songs out of it, getting the right angle of your face, in different places, situations, scenarios and even emotions. In fact I am one of the guilty person here.  We often post our pictures like this on our own social networking sites like facebooks, Instagram, twitter, wechat and so on.  And hundreds or thousands of our friends see these, take a look, click like, post comments, etc. 

We, as an OFW, oftentimes or most of the times actually post the places we've been visited, posts good looking pictures, foods, restaurant or bars.  Which oftentimes our relatives or friends back home were thinking, "WE" got a lot of money, we are HAPPY, we are spending lots.  "Iba na talaga narating" or "yabang naman neto" or "ganda ng buhay niya, dami siguro pera" or "puro gala at kain sa labas, me naiipon ba naman?" these Filipino traits and mentality are very normal for us, accept it or not, we judge easily, say things that maybe below the belt.  But what you see, sometimes is not what really you get, look deeper, each and everyone have their own stories to tell, behind those cameras.

Truth is, reality bites, they don't know the hardship, they don't know how much homesickness we felt, they don't know that some of us here, just see the places without even spending much, just to have a good background or remembrance.  They don't know how many nights we cried, the difficulty of working abroad, dealing with other nationalities and characteristics.  But, they see us HAPPY, because we will not post our own SELFIES that we, most of the time are lonely or screwed by our employers, and so on. This is the best part of us as Filipinos, no matter how hard it is for us, no matter how heartbreaking every experiences we got, as much as possible, we don't let our families back home to feel it, to know it.  We will always pretend we are OK, even though we are not, even if they were thinking the other way.

The OFW SELFIE we can say, as FIlipinos determines how strong we are, how we can face and smile in front of our cameras, hiding the real feelings inside.  This is the truth behind some of the stories of OFWs.

photo from google images