Losing home
Greetings from my hometown. I think I'm going deaf from the different types of music blaring from various computer terminals and all the shooting going on in this Internet cafe... :D
This trip home has been different from all the others coz it's a kind of final pilgrimage for me: My parents are moving to Sabah. Yes, this is the "potential" change I spoke of early last month. It wasn't confirmed then. It's more or less unavoidable now.
For those not familiar with Malaysian geography, Sabah is one of two states on Borneo Island, separated from the other 11 states in Peninsular Malaysia by the South China Sea.
Do you know what this means? In future I will have to take a flight to Sabah to see my parents. No more driving home. In fact, no more home... the next time I visit my parents, it'll be in a strange, unfamiliar place! 
I'm losing my home!!!!
I'm happy for Dad & Mom coz Dad's so excited about the move. He's got a new job lined up over there and it's a wonderful opportunity for him. I'm just sad for myself. I feel like I'm losing my hometown, my roots... I mean, we've been in this town for 21 years. I go back and see familiar faces there. I greet all the "uncles" & "aunties" (in Malaysia, anybody who is a generation older is called "uncle" or "auntie" out of respect). I know all the shortcuts, the small lanes, the back-roads to get to places. This is the place I grew up in. My school was here. My church was here. My home was here.
If my parents are no longer here, I won't be coming back anymore. There's no reason for me to go back. I don't have any other very close relatives here whom I would come back specially to visit.
I cried, way back in early Sept, when I heard my parents might be moving. I cried about losing my home. I can't believe I cried over a building of bricks and cement and mortar. Especially since I only stayed in that house for 3 years before leaving to go to college. But it was home in a way our previous house wasn't... this was our very own house, we owned it, it was like going to be there forever and ever, waiting for me to come back. And each time I came back, it welcomed me. It was... home. 
Bleh, I am even more sentimental than I thought.