I recently met up with a long-time friend, Ray Borja, at Ichiba Japanese Market near Terminal 3 of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport. Ray had just arrived from abroad the previous night and wanted to catch up over lunch before taking a 10-hour bus ride to his home in Naga City. This was one of his regular trips toggling between Chicago and Manila for business and pleasure.

Ray and I last saw each other in November 2013 after Typhoon Haiyan, locally named Yolanda by Filipinos, devastated portions of Southeast Asia, particularly the central region of the Philippines. It was one of the most intense tropical cyclones ever recorded, killing at least 6,300 people in the Visayas region alone and displacing some 4 million people.

I met with Ray that one night in November at the Rizal Filipino Cultural Center at the corner of Irving Park Road and Clark Street to drop off what little I could add to the relief goods being donated for the survivors of this natural disaster. Ray was spearheading the drive for non-perishable food, clothing, medical supplies, and other essentials to be shipped to Manila and distributed to survivors of the storm. He garnered support from the Chicago mayor, the Illinois governor, and several local media outlets.

After that night, I didn’t hear from Ray for several months. Months turned into years. Yesterday, he told me that his experience helping the people, especially the youth, affected by the storm made him realize his new purpose: To empower youth through education and skill-building that transforms them into resilient changemakers for their own communities. Ray then relocated back to his hometown in the Bicol region of the Philippines. His family immigrated from Naga when he was four years old. So, for the past decade, along with managing his youth programs, Ray has been listening to the sound of ocean waves crashing against the rocks, which is frequently interrupted by roosters who, according to him, would sometimes operate in a constant loop.

We were five hours into catching up when Ray checked his phone and realized he still had to get back to the hotel before booking a ride to the bus terminal. After we parted ways, two questions came to mind:

1. What powerful experiences can knock us out of our current orbit and set us on a new trajectory in life?…and,

2. When we come face-to-face with this potential change, do we fight it and preserve what’s familiar, or do we embrace it and open ourselves up to unknown possibilities?

All I know is, from Ray’s perspective, he wakes up every morning to greet the boats on the calm shores of the Pacific and to see the sunrise on the horizon, where the sea always meets the sky.