It was in 2004 when my sister Grace and her Family migrated in the US to work there as a Math Teacher. She left her teaching Job here in the Philippines and asked her husband Allan to give up his Job in an International Cargo ship as Seafarer so they could be together with their 2 year old kid. It was a bold decision they made to leave a relatively good life here in the Philippine to venture in a foreign land to find a much better life for their family.
To live and work in an unfamiliar place was quite a challenge for them, a lot of adjustments had to be made considering the culture, the weather, the time zone and the way of life as a whole. But the brave souls were determined to conquer it all.
They first settled in New York for 2 years before moving to Arizona where they found comfort and decided to stay there for good.
Fast forward
Time came for their first born Allanah Grace to go to school, they enrolled her in Tuba City Boarding school. The bubbly Allanah Grace was just like any other little girls who love playing and love all Disney Princesses and other characters. She had a very healthy life growing up as a kid in the US.
Ever since here in the Philippines we already observed her exceptional intelligence but we didn’t expect that she will soar high in school in a country where she is called foreigner. We got so surprised when my sister Grace sent us the news about Allanah’s exemplary academic performance in school, we were all in euphoria and gratified knowing that she grew up very smart.
Academic awards and victories from different competitions were received besting other smart kids. We cannot contain our happiness knowing the achievement of our dear niece and as a matter of fact we can even search her name in Google and it will show some of her victories and achievements in various competitions.
She was also once invited to the Honors’ banquet in Harvard together with all other kids with exceptional intelligence. She was even named along with other smart kids in school as dangerously Intelligent because of their superb academic performance in school.
Aside from the numerous awards that made her parents so elated was the perfect GPA of 4.0 that she consistently get, not to mention that she is a talented musician as well.
In 2011, my sister gave birth to cute little boy they named Ezekiel. Just like her sister, he grew up like the ordinary kids who like to play and do kid’s stuff. He has also manifested high intelligence in an early age just like her sister.
We witnessed his exceptional astuteness when they visited the Philippines in 2013 when he was only 1 year and 8 months. We got so amazed witnessing him reading the signages found in the hotel, we thought that he was only able to read them out of familiarity but my sister said he can really read. We were all stunned knowing that fact because he was only a year and 8 months. My sister even narrated that he could already count 1 to 100 which added to our astonishment.
In 2015 my sister got a better job opportunity that required them to move to Maryland. The family decided to chase the big break and settle in another beautiful State in the US.
Allanah continued her school in Maryland and is consistently reaping a lot of academic and extra-curricular awards and Ezekiel got his first taste of a real school in Maryland.
We were all expecting that Zekky (as we fondly call him) will be doing excellently in school since it was already very evident when he was just a baby but that expectation was way too low when he got to be accepted in a Talented and Gifted program of Heather Hills Elementary via Prince George’s County Public School’s Special Program.
What’s more amazing is knowing that at the age of 6 he could already solve complex mathematics Like Quadratic and Rational Equation. There was even one instance in 2016 when he was only 4 years old during our video call when he presented a lesson on Quantum Physics to his cousins here in the Philippines and our jaws were all dropped in awed.
My sister Grace and her Husband Allan couldn’t be any prouder to their offspring and so we are, their family in the Philippines.
