I am coming to terms with the fact that I live abroad, far away from the Dominican Republic, my place of birth and homeland at heart. Becoming an expatriate has not been a matter of choice but of need, and not precisely of the economic kind: Leaving was more than a mere political statement; a door to freedom is what it was.

Little did I know it then, but the decision took years to mature inside my head.  As crazy as it may seem, at some point I decided that I was about to leave behind my classmates, friends, colleagues and loved ones and detached myself of the noises in my head telling me to stay put and shut.

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