On Being Interviewed by Tala Ocampo for #TrailingSpouseStories

I have wanted to join the #TrailingSpouseStories blog crawl ever since I was asked by two bloggers and fellow trailing spouses, Tala and Didi. They came up with this brilliant concept: a venue for trailing spouses to dig deep, sharing their personal stories and connecting. Each month they explore a different theme that resonates among trailing spouses.

It took me a while to finally join in, but I am so happy that I did. Tala has been my BFF for over two decades and I can always count on her to ask questions that aren’t the easiest to answer, can make you feel uncomfortable and provoke self-reflection.  Don’t get me wrong. This is good. Our deepest truths don’t always reveal themselves so easily and it can be scary to bare yourself emotionally!

I was hesitant, afraid of being misunderstood or sounding ungracious, but with Tala’s help, encouragement and reframing, I felt free to answer the very first thoughts that popped up. Tala has this innate ability to draw people out and reveal personal transformation and growth. This is what makes her an AMAZING life coach and me the luckiest BFF!

So while I choose to talk about my passions for travel, design, style and food on my blog, I’d like to invite you to take a deeper look into my life and thoughts as a Filipino, a diplomat’s wife and a trailing spouse.

On Tala’s interview post, entitled Freedom To Be Our Own Filipinas, I explore my own sense of national identity and how it shows in my day-to-day expat life.

 

Check out other #TrailingSpouseStories in this month’s blog crawl:

Clara of The Expat Partner’s Survival Guide says that although she has travelled extensively all her life and lived in many different countries, she has never felt anything but British through and through in Why I Have Always Felt British All My Expat Life.

Didi of D for Delicious discovered that when she lived outside the Philippines, she learned to embrace the entirety of her Filipino-ness – the good, the bad and the ugly in #TrailingSpouseStories: Embracing Filipino version 2.0.

Liz of Secrets of a Trailing Spouse shares how her view of her home country has changed in the four years since she left in What Is This Place I Call Home?

Tala reflects on her own rediscovery of being a Filipino abroad in The Personal is the National.

Yuliya of Tiny Expats shares that sometimes, what your national identity represents is not exactly what you would like to represent in At War With National Identity.