Christienne Damatac
I was born in Quezon City, Philippines and moved to the United States when I was a little over 3-years-old with my parents and older sister, Jill. I spent my elementary school years in Shillington, a small town in southeastern Pennsylvania. When I was 10-years-old, my family moved to Jackson Township in central New Jersey because my mother found a better job. Upon moving to New Jersey, I attended Goetz Middle School and went on to graduate from Jackson Memorial High School. I am now a student at Brooklyn College and plan to major in Biology.
As a result of living in the suburbs my whole life, I developed more of a fondness towards the city because of its bustling energy and variety of people. It was definitely a much more interesting place than my hometown, Jackson, known only for its theme park—Six Flags. The more I went to New York City, the more I loved it; it was rich with life and overflowing with culture. I knew that attending college in the city and living there would be a wonderful experience. Most of the colleges I applied to were in urban areas, namely Philadelphia and New York City. Getting accepted into CUNY’s Macaulay Honors College was a free ticket to one of the best cities on Earth. My parents got an apartment for me a few blocks from Brooklyn College and it’s been my home since last August. In this way, I became a ‘New Yorker.’ What I thought would be a frightening place to live (due to common outsider pretentions about the safety of the city in general) is in actuality, not scary at all. Now I actually know what people mean when they say, “take the B,” “take the Q,” or “I live in the Upper West Side.”
Unlike many of my classmates, my parents have never lived in New York City. When we moved to the United States, we spent some time in suburban Maryland and Rockland, NY before finally settling in Shillington. No matter where we went, my parents chose to go there because of the presence of relatives or close friends. We did not have any relatives living in New York City; even now, most of my relatives live in the suburbs along the east coast. The main and only reason I am in the city is for education purposes. I do not see myself living in the city my whole life, but for now I love being here and I could not have chosen a better place to be because of all the opportunities available.
I consider myself to be both a New Yorker and a Jersey Girl (minus the stereotype of fake nails, bad attitude, highlighted hair, and excess of jewelry). I find it amusing and insulting when people generalize and look down on New Jersey. At the same time, people also take a broadly negative view of New York City. Ever since I moved to the city, I find myself defending both of my ‘homes’ when I tell New Yorkers that I am from New Jersey, or when I tell people in Jersey that I live in Brooklyn. The truth is, there is no one way to categorize a place and its people. I am both; I can look, act, and talk like both because a person doesn’t have to say “coffee” a weird way to be from New York, or have platinum blond hair with black highlights to be from New Jersey. I am home in both Jackson and Brooklyn.
Wonderful!