Sometimes I wonder what my life would have been like if I never left the Philippines when I was 11 years old.

I like to say that I had a privileged life over there.

Philippines then was a third world country and it still is yet for both sides of my family we were not destitute. We could afford a housekeeper, a chauffer and two cars.

My father being a doctor, and my mother working for the government, I look back now and think that I had it pretty easy. My parents and I lived with my grandparents.

I had a nanny for 9 years and that doesn’t count the housekeeper we had. I never washed any dishes in my life. I had never cleaned my room, washed the laundry or ironed any clothes. The word “chores” was foreign to me.

But everything changed when I boarded an airplane 10 years ago.

My parents were here in the U.S. first, and then I followed them accompanied by my grandparents.

The first thing I noticed were the streets, it was so clean, the air, the buildings, everywhere I looked it was clean. There were no traffics as bad as over there in the Philippines, and everyone obeyed the streetlights.

The next thing I noticed is where we lived. We lived in an apartment, with my mother’s brother and sister.

I remember specifically the bed that I first slept in. My mother said that when I woke up, I should fix it because no one else will. I have to fix the bed? The next thing I knew, I was also washing the dishes. I didn’t even know how to wash the dishes, my uncle had to show me. I had to learn how to set the table and I had to learn how to make rice.

Who cares? I didn’t know I was a spoiled child until I moved here. Keep in mind I thought I was a very stubborn child (3 different nannies in six months).

I never realized until then what my life was like in the Philippines until I was here. My cousins in the Philippines were telling me about the life over in the U.S. but I didn’t bother to listen. I didn’t realize the hard work our housekeeper does, or my nannies, now that I have little brother, now I feel like a nanny (bad karma I guess).

But since I have been introduced to chores and many more things, I have come to a conclusion that I wouldn’t trade my life to go back there.

When I went for a visit in the Philippines last spring, I saw how privileged I am living here in the U.S. The whole country is poluted.

Everything there is very expensive to them but not to people like me.

For a week, I didn’t wash any dishes, clean any rooms, cook any food or drive a car. I just went shopping and visited friends and relatives.

My cousins have asked me what it is like living here, and I told them it is great living here. I would probably not be a journalism major. I would probably not have the opporutunity to choose what I want to major in.

My cousins have asked me about my life here, and I told them it’s difficult but I wouldn’t change anything drastic about it. I told them about the feeling of independence. Sure I don’t have my own apartment or anything but I have a certain kind of independence people my age don’t have in the Philippines.

I wouldn’t have the freedom of just getting in my car and driving off to see the sunset.

I can do so many things here that I can’t do over there. That’s the “American Dream.”

Lazarte is in her second semester with the Union. The weekly forum does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board.