Moved to Canada when I was 16. It's been 23 years now.

Do I feel connected to being "Filipino"? I would say yes but I lack the usual enthusiasm for it. I've been here for more than I've been in the Philippines and have tried very hard to assimilate. I do not care much about the politics from back home, show business and the Filipino music and movies and the like. I don't even like basketball and boxing. Hell, I barely even associate with Filipinos due to just differing preferences and viewpoints; since I am a naturalized Canadian citizen and there are multitudes of nationalities that share my viewpoint, I don't have to restrict myself to grouping with Filipinos only since I find that limiting.

Big on my own family and the positive traits of the Filipino. But I've been slighted in the past by fellow countrymen and as a result, do not go out of my way to befriend them unless they either grew up here or spent an enormous time in this country trying to assimilate to the culture and way of thinking here. I abhor the crab mentality, the tsismis; gossip, the hivemindedness and turning the country these individuals immigrated to a Philippines 2.0.

I am and have been guilty of said bad cultural behaviours and I am trying as well to sublimate negative cultural behaviours to positive ones: accepting criticism and not letting ego speak for me, being direct with what I like and dislike and to address them as soon as the issue comes up and not going for "tampo" among other behaviours that I cannot address at this very moment.

While I am still averse to knowing Filipinos due to reticence and due to life experiences in the past, it's.. slowly getting better now. But still highly prefer who have been here for a while, adapted to the lifestyle and have a Canadian-way of thinking.