Moving out of home

It's finally time for me to leave the nest. The pandemic curbed my plans to move out last year, but the moment has finally arrived and has served as a great moment of reflection.

Moving out for many Asians comes packaged with a sense of guilt, a byproduct of being raised using Confucian values. How will my parents do all the housework? Will they become exhausted and age quicker? Are they ok financially? These and many other questions crossed my mind when I decided to move out of home in late 2019. And although this feeling hasn't disappeared, even 18 months later, it is not strong enough to sway my commitment to my decision.

What this shows me is that we're moving away from the traditional filial model to more of a hybrid one. As Asians who have grown up in a western country, we've been exposed to 2 viewpoints of the world, enabling us to be selective in the values and opinions we want to uphold. Yes, I agree that filial values should be maintained, but how we adopt them should not be fixed and open to interpretation. I owe my parents everything, and I will support them until the day I die. But, I am my own person, and I will make decisions only for myself.

- Jeff