Globe-trotting

I called a former officemate a week ago about our business deal. What was supposed to be a short conversation on her update extended to almost forty five
minutes of talking over the phone. I was surprised to know that a lot of people I worked closely with while at the food industry are leaving, not just the company, but the Philippines for good. I carried our conversation on my thoughts the whole morning even if I was in a meeting.

One of my favorites has resigned because she is taking up a nursing course full time. It's a fast track course I was told. She will leave for Canada as soon as she graduates this year or early next year. This perky woman graduated cum laude in college and was a silver medalist in her MBA class. And now she's leaving with her son and pursue a career I never imagined she would take.

This reminds me that two of my former batchmates in high school are back in school. You guessed it right, nursing. The grand scheme of their lives is to migrate to the U.S. The best way to make this fast is to get a job and not wait for their petitions.

Three of my managers still from my former company will leave for Australia. They will still hold managerial positions but a notch or two lower with what they have now. What's with the position when they are "assured" of a better life in another country? Their families will follow a year after.

One department head whom I consider a good friend while I was in the company has just resigned. He's not even in his mid-forties. Maybe he'll just take a sabbatical. I don't know his reason for resigning. Fatigue maybe. He will have a tour of the world. We have not really talked after I left the company.

A former officemate sent a message to me to inform me that our good friend is already in California with her family. She was asking when will I go there.

My husband's good friend is already a citizen of Australia. Half of my classmates in high school have left the Philippines. My three good friends back in college decided to call the Netherlands their home even with stable and flourishing careers here.

I don't have to go far telling stories of my friends and classmates. All the members of my immediate family are in the U.S. I am the only one left here. We will be migrating too soon. I have my mind set on being with my family - my parents, my brother and sister. Yes, my parents visit us here in the Philippines but I want us all to be together again as a family. That is my greatest motivation in coming to a decision to leave the country. A close second is the benefits that go with living in the first world.

When I started as a junior manager in my former company, it puzzled me to no end why two department heads decided to leave everything behind - properties, career, friends, relatives. Destination Canada. One of them has a special child and that was her family's very reason why they left for Canada. Canada has a clear cut program for special children as I was told.

Employee turn over in most companies are so fast. We are losing our young people to Dubai, Singapore, Canada and Australia for better jobs. Better jobs means a promise of a better life. Or at least the idea is you are in step one in your quest for a life less ordinary so to speak. The U.S. is still a favored destination and it's mostly about joining the parents and family there.

I understand the aggressiveness of the youth - the recent graduates and the twenty somethings. But for the past year or so, even those who are in their mid-life and doing good in terms of career, have acquired several properties, still choose to leave the country.

What do all these tell us. It's not just about career or money. It's about the future this country holds.