I was supposed to be on a study break. You know, reviewing Azure firewall rules, maybe poking around Wireshark like a good future cybersecurity engineer. Instead… I went on YouTube.Big mistake. Huge. A video popped up: “Old Manila in the 1960s — A Glimpse of the Glory Days.” Cue vintage cars, clean streets, people in barong casually walking down Escolta,

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I left the Philippines in 2013. Since then, I’ve lived in the U.S., discovered the joy of functioning public libraries, and gotten spoiled by tap water you can actually drink. But even after more than a decade away, my screen still lights up with poverty maps of the Philippines—every shade of red feels personal. It’s as if the map knows

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