A Return

By Johnny Nghiem

July 16^th, 2019

"Why u not come to my place I can clean your pedicure." - Mom

There was a time not too long ago where I forgot what it meant to be home. For a while now, Berlin is the home I substituted for said home and as much as it is, it still isn't.

Not taking anything away from the city of grey, but Toronto built this kid and nothing can take that away, not even a bottle of club mate.

Home, like genres, don't exist; it's all the same but with a different application.

I just returned home (Berlin) after being away for almost a month, half of which was spent filming in Los Angeles while the other half spent seeing old and new faces in Toronto (home).

In Toronto, I was reminded daily of how lucky I am to be surrounded by people I consider as family and how much love and care is involved with these relationships. Some of which I've known for over a decade which is like a lifetime these days.

From revisiting memories in the form of Chinese pastries to even celebrating Canada Day at the cottage, I got to live a life that I once did. No, that I still live.

Some people tell me that seeing one another feels like just another day and non-intentionally, I like it that way.

There's no way about it, I just treat every day as something special and independent that hopefully can hold a conversation for years, days, or even seconds until we see each other again.

I miss everyone and everything and I like it that way too.

When my dad unofficially changed his name to Peter so that his co-workers can pronounce a name he has, I slowly found out that Vicky was formerly known as mom, and Kevin was my now my uncle, not Thu.

Not saying I have a cultural name, but it makes me wonder that if genres don't exist anymore, why do names?

I'd like to be Tony Leung but who am I kidding, I'm alright with being just Johnny.

What if I wasn't raised in Toronto and actually in Hanoi. I thought about Paris in the past but that was such a blip in our family history, however, Hanoi is a far more realistic daydream.