Home can be a funny thing when you’ve laid roots in a bunch of places over the course of many, many years. As a kid, home was the roof over my head, a place to come back to when school was done or when day camp was over. Home was a collection of sounds especially with my grandma humming to Filipino music alongside the whirring of the sewing machine. Over the course of my teenage years, home was in front of a computer screen, gluing myself to the chair for games or homework. It was also the neighborhood where friends rang the doorbell to run and play ball along the dead-end street. Then when university came along, home was found in my independence and the student communities that made me feel like I belonged. I didn’t know it then, but I think the moment I moved to Vancouver was when I detached myself from my family’s concept of home. Tears of joy and sadness definitely meant that home wasn’t going to be the same any more. Yet, my independence out in the west coast completely derailed my sense of home by being defined as the comfort in delusion and lack of love. Climbing back out of the hole I dug myself in was where I started to realize that home may in fact really be back in Toronto. Realization was made into a reality when the pandemic hit where I was needed to support my family. How elusive has the concept of a home become when, again, I find myself living in the world class city of New York City? What I learned from all of this shifting around was that home will always be Toronto where my friends and family are. No matter how close I was to losing myself and the many times I was tempted to breaking the chains of this anchor, I always somehow found myself back to where I belong. I think I had always tucked in the back of my mind hoping that one day I’d officially come back and stay in Toronto in the long-term. Now is no exception. As I write this post, I find myself 2 months away from returning to the place I call home.
While six months have passed since my last update, I have been working hard to ensure that I’d have the means for further personal growth and development. I am happy to share that I have achieved a spot at the Toronto Metropolitan University for a PhD in Management with a specialty in Digital Enterprises and Social Media. The program begins in September 2024 and is a part-time program that allows me to continue working Full-time, a win-win situation for my lifestyle. For the past decade, I had always sat with the idea that maybe some day I’d be interested in going back into academia. Now was the time that I finally scratched that cerebral itch and took a leap of faith. Having witnessed a little bit of the trials and tribulations of publishing papers and participating in months-long research projects, I find that I, too, want to train to become a scientist. It’s all nice when said than done so here’s to an interesting next few years in academia!
I am also now very happy and excited to share the news that I’ve purchased my very first home. I’m ecstatic to begin a new journey of establishing a home that represents me and my relationship. The countless hours watching interior design videos on YouTube indicate how motivated I am to save money to create the home I want. It’s definitely a fixer-upper but nonetheless, a blank canvas ready to be filled with self-expression.
It is worth noting that returning home is only made that much more meaningful with loved ones around. Many friends and family have also begun embarking on new journeys of marriage, children, and business endeavours. I had the privilege to be a part of the bridal party for my childhood’s best family friend and was reminded of why I love home. I also was given news to become my sister’s man of honor for her wedding in 2025 and was reminded of how important it is to be present at home. I have found that although many may not fully understand their reason for waking up in the morning, or their purpose or contribution to the everyday, they are willing to take the steps to discovering what that may be. Being surrounded by progress, productivity, proactiveness, and potential are just other places I’d like to call home.
Now, achievements can be such a strange and perplexing thing. The most defining feature I find about it is its elicitation. By coming in many shapes and sizes over mere seconds to a lifetime, it’s the way it invites others to share in an emotional experience. To some, its receiving a 100% on a math test or reaching 100 floors on the stairclimber. To others, it could be the one or two university degrees conferred after 4 or 8 years, or the one or two medical licenses obtained after 5 or 10 years of practice. It could be the mumbling of a baby’s first words or the acceptance of a lifetime partner’s hand in marriage. It could be as simple as the very rare Pokemon caught after hours of searching or finally finding that item your RPG character just absolutely needed. It could be the compassionate realization of putting your own happiness first or the very brave first step in your mental health journey. If you find yourself relating to any of the above, well then, you’ve already achieved many things.
I think the ugly truth about achievements is that once its value is realized, it can be misused as a tool for power. In many aspects of my own life and from observing other walks of life, I have found that motivation can be fueled by the desire to succeed more than others or to ensure uniqueness and differentiation. Is there a correlation between accomplishment and relatability? Is accomplishment a top factor in how one relates to another or is it purely confounding to other things like net worth? Is it just me or does it seem like there’s sort of a stigma against speaking to big achievements and only sharing the small ones? I think the context in which these are talked about is important but sometimes, at least in my experience, the audience matters too. I think achievements are a great thing no matter how big or small and you can’t control how people react to them. You can only control the limit of what you wish to achieve and the level of modesty you care to present.
If you’ve stuck around long enough by this point, then I want to thank you for taking the time. This was a positive writing piece in pouring my heart out or slapping together fragments of my brain. With hopes of not sounding too unrefined, the questions I’ve asked (rhetorical or not) have made me aware that there are probably pages and pages of research on the topic of achievements and its impact on the human experience. I hope the perspective I shared today sparks some motivation in your own life. I’m glad to have taken the opportunity to share this major step in my life. To share that not only has recognizing home been a personal achievement in and of itself, but that all of these huge milestones and achievements have led me right back home.
Artemio Rimando 