A New Home

By: Delilah Rodriguez

Estelito Meneses loves to cook with his dad and his grandpa but it wasn't always so easy to cook with them.

Estelito once lived on the island of the Philippines with his whole family. But when he moved to the US, his Dad and brother had to stay

When Meneses lived in the Philippines he spent a lot of time with his family, some of his favorite memories are with his family at the beach in the Philippines.

Such great memories were left behind when Meneses moved to the US in 2010-2011. Meneses moved when his mother wanted to go live in the US with his grandparents. His grandparents wanted a better life for their daughter and their family.

Rather unfortunately, Meneses’ inspiration, his dad, and Meneses’ younger brother were unable to take the trip with the rest of the family.

This caused a lot of sorrow in his family and for Meneses himself says “ Moving was pretty difficult. I had to leave behind my brother and my dad and it really broke my heart that I had to move but I really had to because it was difficult living there,”.

In 2017, Meneses was thankfully able to visit his brother and father in the Philippines for a week. He salvaged his time there doing some of his favorite activities like cooking and playing video games with his father.

When the week was over and Meneses had to go back to the US he missed his father and brother dearly. This longing to see them was short-lived when just later that year the rest of the Meneses family finally joined Estelito in the US.

Since then, Meneses has been able to make more fond memories with his whole entire family ranging from going to the beach again or to just cooking with his Dad.