!

I was born in one country (Philippines) but raised in another (USA), completely isolated from family besides my direct one. In the town I grew up in there were no filipinos - nobody who looked like me or acted like my parents. Obviously I adjusted. I'm very happy but it still amazes me to see friends who can visit the hospital where they were born, go to the school that their parents/grandparents/etc graduated, call on their grandpa/uncle/etc when they need to jump start their car, and have huge family gatherings like in Christmas movies where all the cousins/aunts/uncles know each other and look like each other and laugh and talk and... well, you get the point. Both of my parents have lots of brothers and sisters but I know hardly any of them.

Yesterday someone posted on a facebook picture that I looked like my aunt. WONDERS OF ALL WONDERS! I had never heard that in my life. Suddenly I resemble somebody. Suddenly I take after someone who is not my Dad or Mom - someone who is alive and out there somewhere.

This might sound cheesie since, you know, the internet/telephones exists... but I grew up in America and tried so hard to fit in, I never really wanted to know about the people back home. Now that I'm older it means so much more to me. I was wondering if anybody else has ever felt the same way?