Today is Black Saturday and I have been encountering a lot of posts in Facebook about how the "main characters" were returning back to Manila soon.
This trend in social media began maybe two or three years ago. Whenever a holiday like All Saints Day or Christmas Day draws near, Facebook will be abound with posts from creators poking fun at people from Manila heading back home to their provinces (or to Manila after the holiday) and feeling like they are celebrities.
People from the provinces who study or work in Manila tend to have a main character syndrome and thus feel superior to everyone else whenever they go home.
This is also true for people who grew up in Manila but have family in the province who they spend certain holidays with.
But what about people who are from Manila with no relatives in the province or those who just visit the provinces for a vacation? Do they also feel superior to the locals? I think it would have something to do with their age. I think if they are millenials or older people in general, they would tend to have a negative view of the provinces and hold Manila in great esteem.
I remember my mom buying a pair of pants when she went here and when I asked her why she couldn't buy one in Zamboanga city, she said that it just felt different when you bought it in Manila. Go figure.
When I was new in Manila, I met this nasty lady who was significantly older than me. In a bid to embarrass me, I remember she said that they had a maid from Zamboanga del Norte. She assumed that it was the same place as Zamboanga city. I wasn't disowning Zamboanga del Norte but I informed her that it was a different place altogether. She told me Zamboanga pa rin yun, like her maid coming from the same place (she assumed) I was from was something to be ashamed of. Interestingly, in other countries, Filipinos are known to be maids (not sure if this is still true up to now).
I also met here in person, for the first time someone, that I was only chatting with online while I was still studying in Zamboanga. At that time she was in her 60s. She told me: welcome to the Philippines! She explained that Manila is the Philippines because that is where all the development is. And it's true. All the major infrastructure are in Manila and it's as if the rest of the country doesn't exist.
A coworker once told me that she had a classmate who was also from Zamboanga city. She said that he was cute but his accent turned her off.
I made it a point to learn to speak Tagalog with the same accent that they have here. I learned it so well that when I met my first cousins who grew up in Manila for the first time as an adult, during a funeral, they thought that I studied in Manila.
Since I hardly talk to anybody these days, the accent is almost lost and sometimes, I catch myself speaking Tagalog with a Chavacano accent.
Some of these people with main character syndrome also tend to be breadwinners so I guess that also gives them that feeling of being the main character.
These social media posts also tend to poke fun at the way the "main characters" tend to dress in a flashy style seemingly to announce that they are indeed main characters.
Personally, I do also tend to dress up a lot whenever I go home to Zamboanga. But it's because it's the only time I have an excuse to dress up.
The truth is we are all main characters and we all create our own reality. It's just that a lot of people have forgotten that they are main characters and that they have the power to create their own realities.
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