Anti-Smoke Belching Campaign #002

Warning: This is a very angry nicotine-free post. Parental Guidance is advised.

The need to travel overseas for work-related reasons is a need that I've been able to "escape" over the past seven years. I just had to maintain:

1) a non-travel ready profile ---- never applied for a Passport
2) a great network of possible referrals --- if/when someone needed to be sent somewhere, I was the first to give recommendations (ex. Person X will be happy to go! She has a passport, a visa and she's been there too!)
3) a healthy databank of witty replies to follow-up questions about my passport --- (ex. Boss asks "how many times do I have to tell you that you need a passport!?!" and I reply "I don't need it for Baguio and Cebu... don't worry, I'll take care of it when provincial government units start requiring passports before entry.")

All these didn't work with my new employer and boss... didn't even get to try because it was clearly discussed before I joined --- Annual planning session/s in "other" offices should be expected. Just received some emails from the boss about an upcoming travel and I feel like I'm going to throw up anytime between this sentence and the last line. I want to smoke before I start cursing out loud.

I have been assessing the root cause of this travel-anxiety-evil for quite some time now... so before I light another cancer stick, here goes the 5Why's for this craving:

1. Fear of getting lost. I have a terrible sense of (non)direction. I'm capable of getting lost in our own neighborhood. What's going to happen to me if, and when...
2. Fear of getting arrested. The world is cruel to travelers from third-world countries. Because of certain prejudices, we've become the "favorite" people of immigration officers. We're high potential drug dealers/carriers. I do not want to be the next victim of prohibited drugs"planting."
3. I FIND THE US VISA APPLICATION PROCESS DEGRADING. <Please insert profanities and very angry howling>. I never dreamt about living/being in the US. I like it here. I hate it that I have to go through the hassle of completing paper work and answering arbitrary questions from consuls just to prove that I will returm to my homeland after my business in the "promised land." I am a valuable talent, at least according to my employer, and therefore I'm needed in their country. I'm not begging for entry. I hate it that I worry about possible DENIAL on first try --- but that's only because I don't want to fucking do it again for a what-the-hell-how-did-that-happen-approval the day after getting denied. Let it be known that if this is not a requirement of the job, if I can delegate this to someone else in my team... I'd be a happy camper if I didn't have to fucking go. Fuck everyone who thinks that Filipinos will eat shit just to see snow or whatever...
4. Thought#3 will never go away until the day that all Americans will be required go through the same process that we Filipinos go through whenever we attempt to enter the land of Uncle Sam.
Whew! There you go. I didn't smoke!!!