Go, M. (2020). Everywhere A Garden. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.14418/wes01.1.2232
Everywhere A Garden is a graphic memoir that explores the concept of identity and belonging across countries, languages, and cultures. The story revolves around my decision to pursue my undergraduate education abroad, far away from my hometown in the Philippines, and how this transnational, transcultural experience can forever shift one’s sense of self and home. In it, I track the unexpected challenges I face as an international student in Connecticut, the pivotal but short-lived semester I spend in Seoul, and my many returns to Manila in between. In navigating my relationships with different native, heritage, and foreign languages, learning to reconcile the lives I lead in different places, and reflecting on the changes all these experiences allow me to undergo, this narrative aims to answer the questions: Where is home for one in a constant state of displacement? Can one have multiple homes, and how? How do we define and assign belongings to people and places?